89 Smarthistory guide to Ancient Greek Art
Beth: When we look at Athena, we see a ~gure who looks typically seem believable in terms of what he’s supposed to be doing, pulling
Archaic in style. She is frontal, she’s rather rigid, fairly symmetrical, this spear from his body.
and there’s a linear quality to her drapery. She has that typical
“Archaic smile” that removes her from emotion, removes her from the
everyday world. She seems like a transcendent goddess.
Steven: On either side of the standing Athena are two warriors, and
they move outward. zey’re actually lunging with the spears. One has
their shield facing us, one is turned in the other direction, the shield
is facing away from us; but they move our eye in either direction
outward with real energy, real velocity, and of course, they are both
slightly lower since their knees are bent so that they ~t under the eave
of the gable.
Beth: On either side of those ~gures, we see kneeling archers, who are
shooting bows.
Steven: ze archer on the lew, we can actually identify as Paris, and
we can see his cap is tied in the back, his weight is on one knee
and on one heel. ze bow is missing, but we can certainly see an
arm movement that suggests that he was in the middle of loosing his
arrow.
West Pediment (right side), from the Temple of Aphaia, Aegina (Glyptothek,
Munich) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Steven: zat’s right, this must be tremendously painful, and probably
will kill him, and yet, look at his face; he still retains the “Archaic
smile,” but for all of this it’s important to remember that this is not
naturalism, this is not an axempt to render the feelings of the human
body. zis is a highly stylized, very schematic structure.
Beth: In a way, the ~gure is a symbol more than a real ~gure; a symbol
of a fallen warrior in the Trojan War.
West Pediment (lel side, oblique view), from the Temple of Aphaia, Aegina Steven: One art historian has likened this ~gure to vase painting,
(Glyptothek, Munich) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) where there was an axempt owen to raise torsos up so that you
could see the full musculature in the entire front; so, this is not about
Beth: And then behind him, a striding ~gure with a weapon, who’s naturalism, it’s about revealing the body in a way.
axacking a ~gure who’s falling to the ground.
Beth: ze same art historian likened this ~gure to a reclining kouros,
Steven: Look at the complexity of that group of three in the way in and that’s exactly how he looks. It’s as though a standing kouros
which they overlap. zere’s a real sense of energy. zere’s a real sense ~gure has been tipped over. zis is so di}erent than what we see on
of dynamism. Just prexy extraordinary for the Archaic moment. the east pediment, which dates from only about a decade or two later,
where we see the beginnings of the Classical style.
Beth: On the far lew corner, another wounded ~gure just ~ts into that
corner space.
Steven: Let’s focus for a moment on the wounded warrior that is on
the right side of the west pediment. You can see that he’s fallen back.
He’s on his lew hip and he’s on his lew elbow, and his right hand seems
to be clutching, or perhaps trying to remove a spear that has wounded
him.
Beth: Let me stop you for a moment, because he doesn’t really look Dying Warrior, West Pediment (right side), from the Temple of Aphaia, Aegina
like he’s in the position of a wounded warrior. His knee is bent, it (Glyptothek, Munich) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
comes over his lew leg, he’s propped up on his lew arm, and his right
elbow comes up in a rather awkward way. zis ~gure really doesn’t
East and West Pediments from the Temple of Aphaia, Aegina 90
East Pediment (lel to right), from the Temple of Aphaia, Aegina (Glyptothek, Munich) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Steven: Let’s go take a look. Now, the east pediment is much more Steven: He’s looking down at the ground, and his body is more mature
fragmentary on the lew side, but the one ~gure of the fallen soldier is than the other ~gure, it’s also much more naturalistically rendered.
in great condition, and it’s so di}erent from what we saw, the earlier We’re seeing the origin of the Classical tradition.
Archaic west facade.
Beth: In the Archaic period, we see the hard divisions between the
Beth: While this ~gure still has a bit of that “Archaic smile,” everything muscles and the parts of the body, outlines almost, to parts of the
else about the position of his body tells us that this is a wounded body, and here, one muscle ows into another, and there’s a real sense
~gure taking his last breath. of skin lying over a skeletal structure.
Steven: zat’s right. A moment ago, you had said that the Archaic
sculpture was nothing but really a set of symbols, and here it’s as if
the artist has actually observed a human body and thought about what
it must be like for a ~gure to fall.
Beth: Instead of having that back leg coming over the front leg in a
very unnatural way, and instead of having that elbow liwed up, the
right arm of the ~gure comes over his torso fully; there’s no axempt
to reveal the whole body tipped forward to us the way we had in the
Archaic ~gure.
Steven: Now look at the torso. Look at the muscles of the leg. zis is a
far more complex rendering of the human body in a complex pose.
Laomedon (upper body), East Pediment from the Temple of Aphaia, Aegina Laomedon, East Pediment from the Temple of Aphaia, Aegina (Glyptothek,
(Glyptothek, Munich) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) Munich) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Steven: You can see that he is holding his sword with his right hand,
but he’s also trying to push himself back up, but he doesn’t seem to
be able to do it. His lew arm is still in the shield, and he seems to be
balancing himself. You know it’s just a moment before that shield falls
over with a bang.
Beth: zere’s a sense that he’s propping himself up, but also falling at
the same time, lowering his body as he dies.
91 Smarthistory guide to Ancient Greek Art
Beth: Just like on the west pediment, as we look at the east pediment, Steven: Archaeologists think that archer is actually the one who has
we’ve got a central ~gure again, Athena. hit the wounded warrior on the opposite side.
Beth: ze one who we were discussing before.
Steven: zat’s right.
Beth: So, we have this wonderful uni~cation of action among all of
these ~gures on the east pediment.
Steven: We have this more complex narrative, even though the same
story is being told. We have a much more complex musculature,
much more careful axention to the human experience. zis makes
us ask what has changed? zis just been a few years between these
pediments, and yet they are so di}erent.
Beth: zis is always the questions that art historians ask as we look at
works of art that are separated not by a very long period of time, in
this case. What has happened in the values of ancient Greek culture
that has led them to represent the human ~gure so di}erently.
Athena (fragment), East Pediment from the Temple of Aphaia, Aegina (Glyptothek, Steven: If you go back in Greek history, the Greeks were deeply
Munich) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) inuenced by monumental Egyptian sculpture. You can still get a
sense of a trace of that in the Archaic tradition, but now there’s a
Steven: To the right of Athena, we have ~gures that are much more sense of self-awareness. zese are mobile ~grues out in the world that
intact. We have a lunging ~gure, we saw that on the west pediment as are almost enacting human emotion, human expression, and human
well, who is in the process of impaling a man who has lost his helmet, experience. zat is so di}erent from the idea of representation as
his shield is falling o} his arm, and he is toxering, he has lost his symbolic, which it so informed earlier Greek art.
balance.
Beth: In the Classical period, we have ~gures who we can believe are
Beth: He looks as though he’s about to collapse. part of a story, it’s a story that we can begin to feel for them, we can
sympathize with them as we watch them. zis is a moment in ancient
Steven: We know he’s lost his helmet because the young man who’s in Greek history when the Greeks have just defeated the Persians in
back of him who seems to be trying to aid him and running towards baxle; this is an epic victory for Greek culture when many of the
him, is holding a fragment that we know would have originally been Greek city states united to ~ght their enemy, the Persians.
his helmet.
Beth: His body forms a diagonal in that lunge, and so it ~ts nicely into
that triangular space of the pediment. Behind him is another archer
just like we saw on the west pediment.
Archer (Herakles), East Pediment from the Temple of Aphaia, Aegina (Glyptothek, East Pediment (right side), from the Temple of Aphaia, Aegina (Glyptothek,
Munich) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) Munich) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Steven: Right, this common enemy that really should have been
victorious, the Persians should have won, it was a much larger army;
and the Greeks knew it, and the fact that they were victorious
suggested to them that there was a kind of order in the universe.
Beth: zere’s a sense now that the world is into place that just
operates arbitrarily according to the laws of the gods, but it’s a place
that the human mind, with its sense of the rational, can understand.
Steven: So, there is a much greater burden placed on the Greeks East and West Pediments from the Temple of Aphaia, Aegina 92
with this realization. zey are now responsible for their own society.
zey’re not part of a random order, they are part of an order that they Beth: zere are so many ways that we’re not looking at these the way
actually devise. that the ancient Greeks did. First of all, these were outside in the open
air. zey were high up on a pediment on this island.
Beth: Art historians see the origins of the Classical style in this
historical moment. We have an obligation, even here in the twenty-
~rst century, to try to put ourselves, even though it’s an impossible
task, in the minds of the ancient Greeks, and to truly understand
these works of arts from their point of view. It’s really important
ot remember that these sculptures were painted just like all ancient
Greek sculptures, and with very bright colors.
Painted Mockup of Pediment Sculptures, Temple of Aphaia, Aegina (Glyptothek, Head with traces of color, Pediment Sculptures, Temple of Aphaia, Aegina
Munich) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) (Glyptothek, Munich) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Steven: zis completely destroys our image of Greek art. When we Steven: Certainly the color would have made it much easier to see
think about Greek art, we think about these pristine, brillian, white these ~gures, would try to have been in the shade of architecture.
marble surfaces, and they were garish; they were yellow, they were zere’s another element that we can re-imagine, which is that these
blue, they were green. ~gures not only holding things that have since disappeared, they were
holding spears, and bows and arrows, but they also had other pieces
Beth: Art historians and archaeologists have done scienti~c analyses of metal work that have since been lost. zere was hair, sometimes
of these sculptures, and found traces and residues of pigments and actually hanging like bangs over the forehead, and also long locks that
been able to determine it prexy acurately, at least the red and blues came down and framed the faces. In this case, they were made out
that we ~nd here in some of the geometric paxerns. of lead, and we can actually see lixle pieces of the remaining lead
that are still there, and so we know precisely where they came out of
Steven: It’s so jarring for me to try to imagine these colors back, stone, and that would have helped, I think, create not these ~gures as
and it’s not just that the ~gures themselves were painted, but the single stone objects the way that we see them, but as these much more
architectural spaces in which these ~gures were placed was painted complex ~gures that interact with their architectural environments.
as well.
Beth: Let’s not forget, too, that these are temples. zese are places
of religious worship, and that they were homes to the gods, and
that the central ~gure on both the east and west pediment is the
goddess Athena; and of course, the Greek idea of gods and goddesses
is entirely di}erent from our own Judeo-Christian tradition. zese
are all important things to keep in mind as we look at the Greek
sculptures in museums.
Watch the video. <hxps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdqOIg_QYSc>
23. Kritios Boy from the Acropolis, Athens
A CONVERSATION
Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker
ois is the transcript of a conversation conducted at the Acropolis
Museum in Athens, Greece.
Steven: We’re in the new Acropolis Museum, in Athens, looking at the
Kritios Boy.
Beth: We’re in the very late Archaic period. Some call this the “Severe
Style.” We might even call this Early Classical.
Steven: It’s really this transition between the late Archaic and the
Early Classical. ze sculpture is such a great embodiment of that.
Beth: It allows us to see the transition between the archaic kouros, and
the much more naturalistic, movement-~lled ~gures that we ~nd on
the Parthenon, for example, on the frieze or in the metopes.
Steven: zis sculpture was probably broken originally when the
Persians invaded Athens and desecrated the Acropolis. zis was a
huge blow to the Greeks, and when they ~nally recovered this
territory, they took the sculptures that had been destroyed, and they
buried them, so it’s ironic that the reason that these sculptures are
preserved is in part because they were destroyed, but to make the
story even more complicated, before the Greeks had been defeated by
the Persians, they had an earlier victory at Marathon.
Beth: Where an overwhelming force of Persians was defeated.
Steven: Now that ~rst victory by the Greeks, over the Persians, is
important to understand in relationship to the sculpture, because
some art historians have suggested that the newfound naturalism that
we see in the sculpture is a result of the new sense of self—the new
sense of self-determination–that came in the wake of the victory over
the Persians.
Beth: And a sense of Athens as the leader among the Greek city-states,
who united against the Persians.
Steven: So like the earlier kouros ~gures, this is marble; it’s a standing
nude; he’s relatively still, although there is this potential for
movement.
Kritios Boy, from the Acropolis, Athens, c. 480 B.C.E., 3′ 10″ high (Acropolis Beth: With the kouros ~gures, we had a ~gure that was both standing
Museum, Athens) (photo: CC BY-SA 3.0) <hmps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ still and moving simultaneously, but we here we have incipient
Kritios_Boy#/media/File:009MA_Kritios.jpg> movement—movement about to take place. We have a sense of
93
process, and I think it’s that unfolding of time that makes this ~gure Kritios Boy from the Acropolis, Athens 94
seem so much a part of our world, instead of the timeless world of the
kouros. is, if we look from the side, we see an arch in his back, and there’s a
sense that he’s moving forward, and holding himself back at the same
Steven: ze kouros ~gures were depicted as stick ~gures. zere were time. He’s a bit of a tease.
mechanical joints, that were suggested, but did not really exist.
Steven: Well, he’s in a very relaxed pose.
Beth: Didn’t really work.
Beth: We should mention that the Greeks had started to make bronze
Steven: zat’s right. zere was no way for those ~gures to actually sculptures just before this, and bronze allowed artists to create
move, whereas this ~gure, the much more naturalistic renderings of sculptures with limbs more separated from the torso, or limbs liwed
the volumes of the body; the understanding of the musculature; the into space.
understanding of the bone structure; and especially the transitions
from one part of the body to the next, make the potential for Steven: And you can see why that could be tricky in marble. In fact,
movement believable. this ~gure has lost its leg, and it’s lost its arms. On his lew hip you
can still see a fragment of the strut or bridge that would have helped
Beth: Although we don’t see the feet, and the right side, we don’t see support the arm that would have been next to it. zat also lets us
the calf, there is a sense that this ~gure is standing in a pose that art know that the arm really was at his sides, very much like a traditional
historians call contrapposto. zat is, his weight is shiwed onto one leg, kouros.
and here’s the important part: as a result, other things happen within
the body, so that one shiw in one part of the body a}ects the rest of Beth: So we see the desire on the part of the Greeks, on the part of
the body, so the body acts in unison. this artist, to create a sculpture that’s more open, where the limbs and
the torso are more separated from one another—but in marble, that’s
Steven: We can see that very clearly with the knees. ze weight- really hard to do.
bearing knee is higher than the free-leg knee, and that’s because that
knee droops down a lixle bit. ze axis of the hips are no longer Steven: One more point about the interest in bronze. Unlike so much
aligned. ze weight-bearing leg has a hip that juts upward, into the marble sculpture, here we have eyes that have been hollowed out.
torso, where the free leg, the hip hands down. zey would have been inset, probably, with glass-paste eyes, that
would have been very lifelike, and that’s a technique that was
Beth: ze shoulder above the weight-bearing leg actually drops down commonly used in bronze. In traditional marble sculptures, you
slightly, and that compresses the torso in between. His lifelikeness is actually have the eye carved as part of the solid piece of marble, and
carried into the head, which shiws a lixle bit, so we don’t have that they would have just been painted. zere is this interesting reference
strict frontality that we saw in the kouroi. ze symmetry of the body to the technique of bronze casting, even here in a marble sculpture,
is broken. In actuality human beings are never symmetrical, right? and I should mention that the reason we call this sculpture the Kritios
Our bodies move and shiw. Boy is because the Kritios sculptor was an important sculptor in
bronze at this time, of which this is very stylistically similar. In
Steven: zat’s why the kouroi seem so arti~cial. the entire body, we’ve moved away from the linear representation
of symbols of the body, and we now have these smooth, beautiful,
Beth: Exactly; they seem transcendent and timeless, but because the volumes, that represent this Greek ideal of the athletic male youth.
Kritios Boy is asymmetrical, we have a sense of his engagement
with the world. Gone is that “Archaic smile,” that seems to transcend Beth: zat represented the peak of human achievement, and also the
reality, but one of the really interesting things about the Kritios Boy qualities of the divine.
Watch the video. <hxps://www.youtube.com/watch?v= Q5IWDhXtsmE>
24. Charioteer of Delphi
A CONVERSATION
Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker
ois is the transcript of a conversation conducted in the Delphi Beth: Delphi was a place that all of the city states came to compete,
Archaeological Museum, Greece. and to honor, and make dedications to the God Apollo.
Steven: It’s showing o} not only because of what it represents, but
because of what it’s made out of. zis is bronze which was a very
expensive material. It’s largely copper with a lixle bit of tin. zis was
cast; it’s hollow. In fact, where the arm is missing and on the opposite
side you can actually see how thin the bronze is. It still has glass-paste
eyes, and it would have been inlaid with silver. zere’s tremendous
workmanship here.
Charioteer of Delphi (half-length), c. 478-474 B.C.E., bronze (lost wax cast) with Charioteer of Delphi (detail of eyes), c. 478-474 B.C.E., bronze (lost wax cast) with
silver, glass and copper inlay, 1.8 m high (Delphi Archaeological Museum) (photo: silver, glass and copper inlay, 1.8 m high (Delphi Archaeological Museum) (photo:
Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Steven: One of the most exceptional objects to have survived from Beth: ze silver went around his headband and you can see very
antiquity in Delphi is the Charioteer. ~nely cut pieces of bronze that were used for his eyelashes. He seems
remarkably lifelike. What’s interesting about this sculpture is that,
Beth: zis ~gure was part of a very signi~cant, expensive monument here we are in what we call the Early Classical period, sometimes
that included a team of horses and a groom. Now, chariot races referred to as the “Severe Style” (c.480-460 B.C.E). We have the
were common at athletic competitions, and there were athletic beginnings of naturalism and what’s interesting to me about this
competitions that we all know about at Olympia—the Olympics. But sculpture is that in some ways he’s very life-like the way he turns his
there were also athletic competitions here, at the Sanctuary at Delphi. head, but at the same time we’re seeing contrapposto, but his body is
very columnar. zere’s not a lot of sense of movement in his torso.
Steven: People would commemorate particular victories. zis
particular sculpture was commissioned by a king or a tyrant from
Sicily.
Beth: zere were Greek city states, or poleis, in Sicily that competed
in these games.
Steven: So you can imagine that when you would create an elaborate
bronze sculpture like this that it was commemorating a particular
victory, you were really showing o}. zis was a kind of trophy, and a
very public one.
95
Charioteer of Delphi 96
Charioteer of Delphi (detail of belted drapery, back), c. 478-474 B.C.E., bronze (lost
wax cast) with silver, glass and copper inlay, 1.8 m high (Delphi Archaeological
Museum) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Beth: And look at those folds, they really remind us of the uting of a
Greek column and look at the way the drapery billows out above the
belt. He’s not strictly frontal, we might think about a kouros ~gure,
a male nude ~gure during the Archaic period. Here, he’s not frontal.
He turns a lixle bit to the right. He liws his arm out. You see the
beginnings of an interest in a more open pose that would become
much more popular in the Classical period. In other words, not a
~gure with his arms ~rmly axached to his body.
Steven: ze legs are parallel but they lack the sti}ness of the earlier
Archaic kouros. Look at the delicacy, for instance, with which the feet
are represented. zese are no longer symbols that are being incised
into stone, this is clearly the product of the careful study of the
anatomy of the human body. zis is based on direct observation.
Charioteer of Delphi, c. 478-474 B.C.E., bronze (lost wax cast) with silver, glass and Charioteer of Delphi (detail of feet), c. 478-474 B.C.E., bronze (lost wax cast) with
copper inlay, 1.8 m high (Delphi Archaeological Museum) (photo: Steven Zucker, silver, glass and copper inlay, 1.8 m high (Delphi Archaeological Museum) (photo:
CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Steven: ze moment that’s being represented is not the moment of Beth: I almost feel like I’m at the games and this is the moment where
winning the race, it’s not that kind of active moment. Instead, this is the winners are being celebrated and this great athlete is there to be
the moment of quiet victory awerwards. admired by the crowd.
Beth: Not only that, the legs would not have been visible since they Watch the video. <hxps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-Q79HlORtM>
were in the chariot.
Steven: zat might explain why it’s axenuated—that is, why the
~gure’s legs seem to be a bit too long. zat’s accentuated because the
drape is belted very high above the waist.
25. Artemision Zeus or Poseidon
A CONVERSATION
Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker
Artemision Zeus or Poseidon, c. 460 B.C.E., bronze, 2.09 m high, Early Classical (Severe Style), recovered from a shipwreck op Cape Artemision, Greece in 1928 (National
Archaeological Museum, Athens) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
ois is the transcript of a conversation conducted in the National Beth: You didn’t even have to tell me it was a god. He so powerful, he
Archaeological Museum, Athens. looks so in control. We look at him and we know that this is a god
who controls the fates of human beings.
Steven: We’re in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, and
we’re looking at a great bronze sculpture of a striding god. Steven: We’re prexy sure either Poseidon or Zeus.
97
Artemision Zeus or Poseidon 98
Beth: zat gleaming, shining, radiant e}ect goes with the idea of this
being Zeus.
Artemision Zeus or Poseidon (lel view), c. 460 B.C.E., bronze (National Artemision Zeus or Poseidon (detail of head), c. 460 B.C.E., bronze (National
Archaeological Museum, Athens) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) Archaeological Museum, Athens) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Beth: Now, Poseidon is the god of the sea. Steven: Look at the way he occupies space, we don’t want to stand in
front of him, we would be the victim of that thunderbolt. His focus
Steven: And his brother Zeus is the god who rules all of the Olympian is extraordinary, we have that incredible extension that is more than
gods from Mount Olympus. ze way that we would be able to six feet of one hand to the other and he’s steadying himself, but also
determine which it was, is dependent on what he was holding. aiming with that hand before him.
Beth: If he was holding a trident, he would be Poseidon and if he was Beth: He’s shiwing as you would need to do in order to hurl something like a
holding a thunderbolt, he would be Zeus. Now, sadly, his axribute is thunderbolt, though it’s hard to imagine hurling a thunderbolt.
lost.
Steven: zat’s right, he’s pushing o} with his right leg and his lew leg,
Steven: Most art historians tend to think it is Zeus. A thunderbolt was the toes are up as if that foot is readying itself to bear the weight of
short and it would not have obscured the face the way that a trident the body as he steps forward.
would have, which was much longer. In addition, if you look at the
gap in his hand, it’s a wide grasp, much wider than it would be if it
was the narrow handle of a trident.
Beth: A thunderbolt was Zeus’s weapon of choice, he’s referred to as,
“ze Hurler of zunderbolts.” Now, this is bronze, it’s important to
talk about what this would have looked like in 460 B.C.E. when it was
created. It would have gleamed, it would have shined in the light.
Steven: It’s so rare that we have an original Greek bronze. ze only reason
we have this one is that it was recovered from an ancient shipwreck on the
Artemision Cape, Greece. What happens is, bronze doesn’t rust unless air
and water alternate. Underwater, it gets encrusted with lots of barnacles
and sea creatures, but it can actually be quite well preserved, as is the case
here.
Hellenistic bronze, 1st-3rd century B.C.E, recently found op the Croatian coast Artemision Zeus or Poseidon (stance), c. 460 B.C.E., bronze (National
(photo: D. Frka/UNESCO) Archaeological Museum, Athens) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Beth: Now, if you think back just a hundred years to the Archaic
period, Greek sculptors were making sculptures out of marble and
they were very contained—that is the limbs were close to the body.
We see during this Early Classical period—
Steven: Sometimes known as the “Severe Style”—
Beth: An interest in ~gures that are more open, where you have limbs
that are apart, ~gures that move into the space of the viewer. zis is
possible because of the use of bronze.
99 Smarthistory guide to Ancient Greek Art
Steven: We don’t need the struts, we don’t need the bridges that are
required in a marble sculpture. Here, the tensile strength of the bronze
is great enough so that those arms can be out and give that kind of
extraordinary vitality to this ~gure and invite us to walk around it.
Beth: zere are really three distinct views of this sculpture, the front
and the back make the ~gure look very at, very schematic, very
silhouexed. We see the full body, we see both legs, the torso—
Artemision Zeus or Poseidon (side view), c. 460 B.C.E., bronze, 2.09 m high
(National Archaeological Museum, Athens) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA
2.0)
Beth: ze remarkable thing to me is that he looks powerful, he looks
super human, but still human in his nudity.
Artemision Zeus or Poseidon (front view), c. 460 B.C.E., bronze (National Archaeological Steven: ze Greeks, understanding the male human body as this
Museum, Athens) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) receptacle for all of its ideals. Plato talked about the idea that the gods
were the perfect manifestation and that we were a kind of inferior
Steven: It’s almost like a drawing. reection of that perfection. And here, we see the Greeks sexing up
this idealized human male body, and we are just a reection of that.
Watch the video. <hxps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqb4Zvb5PNA>
Beth: ze arms stretched out.
Steven: ze arms, especially the lew arm are a lixle longer than they
would be naturally.
Beth: When we move to the side, that sense of atness changes, and
we get a ~gure that seems to occupy space in all directions.
Steven: We see the depth of the torso, we can see a lixle bit of twist in
the hips and the upper body. So we see this ~gure breaking out from
that kouros tradition dramatically.
Beth: What seems like silhouexe actually exists in depth.
Steven: Look, for instance, at the angle of the hole in the right hand.
We can see that the thunderbolt (or the trident) was not held parallel
with the hand, but would have swung around because it’s at a lixle bit
of an angle.
Artemision Zeus or Poseidon (detail from front, close), c. 460 B.C.E., bronze
(National Archaeological Museum, Athens) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA
2.0)
26. Riace Warriors (or Riaci Bronzes)
Dr. JeIrey A. Becker
the head turned to his right. Axached elements have been lost – most
likely a shield and a spear; his now-lost helmet atop his head may
have been crowned by a wreath. ze warrior is bearded, with applied
copper detail for the lips and the nipples. Inset eyes also survive
for Statue A. ze hair and beard have been worked in an elaborate
fashion, with exquisite curls and ringlets.
Statue A (foreground) and Statue B (background), from the sea op Riace, Italy, Head and torso (detail), Statue A, from the sea op Riace, Italy, c. 460-450 B.C.E. (?),
c. 460-450 B.C.E. (?), Statue A, 198 cm high, Statue B, 197 cm high (Museo 198 cm high (Museo Archaeologico Nazionale Reggio Calabria) (photo: Luca Galli,
Archaeologico Nazionale Reggio Calabria) (photo: Robert and Talbot Trudeau, CC CC BY 2.0) <hmps://www.rickr.com/photos/lucagalli/14933052391>
BY-NC 2.0) <hmps://www.rickr.com/photos/robert_trudeau/5082393520>
Statue B
ze Riace Warriors (also referred to as the Riace bronzes or Bronzi
di Riace) are two life-size Greek bronze statues of naked, bearded Statue B depicts an older warrior and stands 197 centimeters tall. A
warriors. ze statues were discovered by Stefano Marioxini in the now-missing helmet likely was perched atop his head. Like Statue A,
Mediterranean Sea just o} the coast of Riace Marina, Italy, on August Statue B is bearded and in a contrapposto stance, although the feet of
16, 1972. ze statues are currently housed in the Museo Nazionale Statue B and set more closely together than those of Statue A.
della Magna Grecia in the Italian city of Reggio Calabria. ze statues
are commonly referred to as “Statue A” and “Statue B” and were Severe style
originally cast using the lost-wax technique.
ze Severe or Early Classical style describes the trends in Greek
Statue A sculpture between c. 490 and 450 B.C.E. Artistically this stylistic phase
Statue A stands 198 centimeters tall and depicts the younger of the
two warriors. His body exhibits a strong contrapposto stance, with
100
101 Smarthistory guide to Ancient Greek Art
oe discovery of the statues in 1972 Argos described by Pausanias (the Greek traveler and writer) is owen
cited in connection to this conjecture: “A lixle farther on is a
represents a transition from the rather austere and static Archaic style sanctuary of the Seasons. On coming back from here you see statues
of the sixth century B.C.E. to the more idealized Classical style. ze of Polyneices, the son of Oedipus, and of all the chiewains who with
Severe style is marked by an increased interest in the use of bronze him were killed in baxle at the wall of zebes…” (Pausanias,
as a medium as well as an increase in the characterization of the Description of Greece 2.20.5).
sculpture, among other features.
Interpretation and chronology
ze chronology of the Riace warriors has been a maxer of scholarly A conjectural restored view of the two warriors (source) <hmps://www.rickr.com/
contention since their discovery. In essence there are two schools of photos/lucagalli/14936093115>
thought—one holds that the warriors are ~wh century B.C.E. originals
that were created between 460 and 420 B.C.E., while another holds ze statues have lead dowels installed in their feet, indicating that
that the statues were produced later and consciously imitate Early they were originally mounted on a base and installed as part of some
Classical sculpture. zose that support the earlier chronology argue
that Statue A is the earlier of the two pieces. zose scholars also make
a connection between the warriors and the workshops of famous
ancient sculptors. For instance, some scholars suggest that the
sculptor Myron crawed Statue A, while Alkamenes created Statue B.
Additionally, those who support the earlier chronology point to the
Severe Style as a clear indication of an Early Classical date for these
two masterpieces.
ze art historian B. S. Ridgway presents a dissenting view, contending
that the statues should not be assigned to the ~wh century B.C.E.,
arguing instead that they were most likely produced together awer
100 B.C.E. Ridgway feels that the statues indicate an interest in Early
Classical iconography during the Hellenistic period.
In terms of identi~cations, there has been speculation that the two
statues represent Tydeus (Statue A) and Amphiaraus (Statue B), two
warriors from Aeschylus’ tragic play, Seven Against oebes (about
Polyneices awer the fall of his father, King Oedipus), and may have
been part of a monumental sculptural composition. A group from
Riace Warriors (or Riaci Bronzes) 102
Statue A, from the sea op Riace, Italy, c. 460-450 B.C.E. (?), 198 cm high (Museo Archaeologico Nazionale Reggio Calabria) (photo: Luca Galli, CC BY 2.0)
<hmps://www.rickr.com/photos/lucagalli/14936093115>
sculptural group or other. ze art historian Carol Maxusch argues Ancient Art of Emulation: Studies in Artistic Originality and Tradition
that not only were they found together, but that they were originally from the Present to Classical Antiquity (Memoirs of the American
installed—and perhaps produced—together in antiquity. Academy in Rome, supplementary volumes, vol. 1), edited by E. K.
Gazda, pp. 99-115, (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002).
Additional resources: P. B. Pacini, “Florence, Rome and Reggio Calabria: ze Riace Bronzes,”
oe Burlington Magazine, volume 123, no. 943 (Oct., 1981), pp. 630-633.
I bronzi di Riace: restauro come conoscenza (Rome: Artemide, 2003).
B. S. Ridgway, Filh Century Styles in Greek Sculpture (Princeton:
J. Alsop, “Glorious bronzes of ancient Greece: warriors from a watery Princeton University Press, 1981).
grave” National Geographic163.6 (June 1983), pp. 820-827.
B. S. Ridgway, “ze Riace Bronzes: A Minority Viewpoint,” in Due
A. Busignani and L. Perugi, oe Bronzes of Riace, trans. J. R. Walker, bronzi da Riace: rinvenimento, restauro, analisi ed ipotesi di
(Florence: Sansoni, 1981). interpretazione, vol. 1, ed. by L. V. Borelli and P. Pelagaxi, pp. 313-326.
(Rome: Istituto poligra~co e zecca dello stato, 1984).
C. H. Hallex, “Kopienkritik and the works of Polykleitos,” in
Polykleitos: the Doryphoros and Tradition, ed. by W. G. Moon, pp. B. S. Ridgway, Hellenistic Sculpture: the Styles of ca. 100-31 B.C.
121-160 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995). (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2002).
N. J. Spivey, Understanding Greek sculpture: ancient meanings, modern
readings (New York: zames and Hudson, 1996).
C. C. Maxusch, Classical bronzes: the art and cral of Greek and Roman G. B. Triches, Due bronzi da Riace: rinvenimento, restauro, analisi ed
statuary (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996). ipotesi di interpretazione (Rome: Istituto poligra~co e zecca dello Stato,
1984).
C. C. Maxusch, “In Search of the Greek Bronze Original” in oe
PART V
Classical
27. Polykleitos, Doryphoros (Spear-Bearer)
A CONVERSATION
Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker
ois is the transcript of a conversation conducted in Naples at the Museo
Archaeologico Nazionale.
Steven: What is perfect? Well, the ancient Greeks thought the human
body was perfect but for them, it was not an individual that was
perfect. It was almost mathematical precision, where the proportions
of every part of the body were perfect in relationship to the others.
Beth: We are looking at an ancient Roman copy of a Greek bronze
original by the great artist, Polykleitos, who sought out to
demonstrate just that–what would perfect ideal beauty be–thinking
about the mathematical relationship of each part of the human body
to the other, and in relationship to the whole?
Steven: zis is a sculpture called the Doryphorus. Doryphorus means
a spear-bearer, and he would have originally been holding a bronze
spear. We call it the Doryphorus. Polykleitos apparently called it
Canon, not to mean a piece of armament, but a kind of idealized form
that could be studied and replicated. zat is, a set of ideas that you
followed.
Beth: ze idea that you could create a perfect human form, based
on math, was really part of a bigger set of ideas for the Greeks.
If we think about Pythagoras, for example, Pythagoras discovered
that harmony in music was based on the mathematical relationship
between the notes.
Steven: In fact, Pythagoras tried to understand the origin of all beauty
through ratio and, so, it follows that the Greeks would be looking
for that in one of the forms that they felt were most beautiful, that
is the human body. ze Greeks would perform their athletics nude,
celebrating the body and its physical abilities. But, even when they
represented ~gures in noble pursuits, like this ~gure, we have a ~gure
whose clothes have been taken o}. zis is not because soldiers went
into baxle nude in ancient Greece, but because this sculpture is not
about warfare. It’s not a portrait of an individual. zis is a sculpture
that is about the perfection of human form.
Beth: zis was found in a palestra in Pompeii, a place where athletes
would work out, perhaps as a kind of inspiration for them.
Polykleitos, Doryphoros (Spear-Bearer), Classical Period, Roman marble copy aler
a Greek bronze original from c. 450-440 B.C.E. (Museo Archaeologico Nazionale,
Naples) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
104
105 Smarthistory guide to Ancient Greek Art art history, ~gures who seem fully alive, as though they move in the
world. zey’re like us.
Steven: So, that’s another layer of meaning. ze Romans loved Greek
art, and had it copied in marble very owen, and even in a city like
Pompeii, we found thousands of sculptures that are copies of ancient
Greek originals. zis is based on a sculpture that is at the very
beginning of the Classical period, before the Parthenon sculptures,
but it’s awer the Archaic ~gures, it’s awer the standing ~gure that we
know as the Kouros. Here, the Greeks have turned away from the
sti} renderings that had been so characteristic of the Archaic, and
have, instead, begun to examine the human body and understand its
physiognomy. zis is one of the classic expressions of contrapposto.
Beth: ze Doryphorus stands on his right foot, his lew leg is relaxed,
the right leg is weight-bearing, but the lew hand would have been
weight-bearing the spear. Similarly, the right arm is relaxed, so there’s
a sense of counterbalancing and harmony in the composition of the
body.
Polykleitos, Doryphoros (Spear-Bearer), Classical Period, Roman marble copy aler Detail of head, Polykleitos, Doryphoros (Spear-Bearer), Classical Period, Roman
a Greek bronze original from c. 450-440 B.C.E. (Museo Archaeologico Nazionale, marble copy aler a Greek bronze original from c. 450-440 B.C.E. (Museo
Naples) Archaeologico Nazionale, Naples) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Steven: In a kouros ~gure, you have both feet ~rmly planted, although Steven: zis is a sculpture that is, for all of the complexity of what
one leg is forward, but, nevertheless, if you were to draw a line we’ve just discussed, is simply walking, but the mechanics of the
between the ankles, they would still be horizontal to the oor. human body walking are incredibly complicated, and here we have
a civilization that not only was interested in understanding,
Beth: And, in a kouros, the ~gure is symmetrical. through careful observation, how the body moved, but were
interested, culturally, in capturing that. We have a society that puts
Steven: Here, both of those things have changed, and you see that his human potential at the center.
lew ankle is up, and so you have a tilt of that axis, the axis of the Beth: And creates ~gures who are not transcendent, who don’t exist in
knees are tilted in the opposite way. ze hips are parallel to the axes a separate world, but who exist in our world. zey’re, in a way, ideal
of the knees, but also tipped, and then look what happens as a result mirrors of ourselves.
of that. In those earlier ~gures, there was a perfect symmetry, and a Watch the video. <hxps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqb4Zvb5PNA>
perfect line that could be drawn down the center of the body. Here,
there’s a gentle S-curve, and you can see, for instance, that his right Polykleitos, Doryphoros (Spear-Bearer) with viewer, Classical Period, Roman
side is compressed, compared to the lew side, because the lew hip is marble copy aler a Greek bronze original from c. 450-440 B.C.E. (Museo
literally hanging down over that free leg. It’s not being supported. Archaeologico Nazionale, Naples) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Beth: To complete that sense of balance and harmony, Polykleitos
turned the head slightly, breaking that symmetry of the Archaic
kouros ~gures. With the invention of contrapposto by the Greeks, in
the ~wh century B.C.E., we would have, for the ~rst time in Western
28. Myron, Discobolus (Discus Thrower)
A CONVERSATION
Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker
ois is the transcript of a conversation conducted at the Palazzo Massimo Steven: Ancient Greek sculptures, bronze or marble, are frozen. But
alle Terme in Rome. that doesn’t mean that the ancient Greeks didn’t want to convey
movement.
Beth: In this case, movement that you couldn’t even see with the
naked eye.
Steven: What we’re looking at is a sculpture by an artist whose name
is Myron. We’ve lost his original, but we have a later Roman marble
copy of the Discus zrower.
Beth: ze original was in bronze from the ~wh century B.C.E.
Steven: About 450, 460.
Beth: And what we’re looking at is one of many Roman copies. In
fact, there’s one next to the other in this museum, a testament to how
popular these were among the Romans.
Steven: ze sculpture shows a man who is at that moment where his
body is fully wound. Look at the way that his right leg is bearing
the weight of his body. His lew leg—the toes are bent under, dragging
slightly—and he’s about to throw that discus.
Myron, Discobolus (Discus orower), Roman copy of an ancient Greek bronze from Myron, Discobolus (Discus orower), two Roman copies of an ancient Greek bronze
c. 450 B.C.E., Classical Period (Palazzo Massimo alle Terme) (photo: Steven Zucker, from c. 450 B.C.E., Classical Period (Palazzo Massimo alle Terme) (photo: Steven
CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
106
107 Smarthistory guide to Ancient Greek Art
which the Greeks always maintain their nobility, even in baxle, even
in terrible situations with monsters. And here, even at this moment
when he’s about to release the discus.
Beth: Right, that nobility, that calm in the face, is a sign of a nobility
of the human being.
Detail of Myron, Discobolus (Discus orower), Roman copy of an ancient Greek Detail of Myron, Discobolus (Discus orower), Roman copy of an ancient Greek
bronze from c. 450 B.C.E., Classical Period (Palazzo Massimo alle Terme) (photo: bronze from c. 450 B.C.E., Classical Period (Palazzo Massimo alle Terme) (photo:
Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Steven: zis is a moment of tremendous tension, but it’s also this Steven: Well, this is a sport, and the man is naked, which is what
moment stasis, of stillness, right before the action. the Greeks did. But there was a real logic there. Why would you
cover up the beauty of the body in sport, which is, of course, a
Beth: Athletes and art historians have debated whether this is even an celebration of what the human body can achieve. zis is really a
actual pose that the discus thrower takes in the process. way to remind ourselves of the Greeks concern with the potential of
humanity, the potential of the mind, and the potential of the body.
Steven: It’s so interesting, because when we think back about the
history of the Greek ~gure, we think ~rst of the Archaic Kouros, Beth: Taking that extra step to become even more ideal, more heroic,
who is so sti} and so stylized. And then we have the tremendous more noble, than even the ~nest athlete.
breakthroughs of people like Polykleitos who developed an
understanding of the body, and showed in a contrapposto. But here Steven: It is a perfect form.
we have something that’s so dynamic, and so complex, I mean just
look at the arc of the shoulders and the arms, and the way that they Watch the video. <hxps://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue
reverse the arc of the twist of the hips. =225&v=OhJKDqZgNXg>
Beth: zat is the overriding concern of Myron, the sculptor, to capture zis particular copy, sometimes known as the Lanceloxi
the aesthetic qualities here. ze sense of balance and harmony, and Discobolus, was unearthed on the Esquilline Hill in Rome in 1871.
the beauty in the proportions of the body. It is thought to have been executed during the reign of Antoninus
Pius in 2nd century C.E.
Steven: zere is kind of anti-realism here, for all of its careful
naturalism. zere is no real strain within the body. It is absolutely at
rest and ideal, even in this extreme pose.
Beth: If you think about a ~gure from much later but in a similar pose
of movement, of athletic energy, like Bernini’s David…
Steven: Well, that’s got all this torsion, absolutely.
Beth: …that ~gure expresses all of the physical power in the face. He’s
clenching his teeth, right?
Steven: zat’s true. And his brow is really knit forward. But here, the
face is absolutely serene. And it reminds me of the consistency with
29. The Athenian Agora and the experiment in
democracy
A CONVERSATION
Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker
View of the Athenian Agora (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
ois is the transcript of a conversation conducted in Athens. sacred sites of Athens, here at the base was the place of public
discourse, the heart of the Athenian experiment in democracy.
Beth: We’re overlooking the Agora, the most important public space
in Athens in the ~wh century B.C.E. Beth: In the ~wh century we see this opening up of the ability of
the citizenry to participate in the government. But Athens was not
Steven: If up the sacred way, at the top of the Acropolis were the the kind of democracy that we think of in the West. ze citizens of
108
109 Smarthistory guide to Ancient Greek Art part in public life, to take part in governmental decision making, you
had to be a citizen, and in order to be a citizen, you had to be male, and
Athens didn’t vote for their representatives in the government, but you had to be Athenian. In fact, Pericles, the great Athenian general,
participated directly. With an election, anyone who’s a great speaker, would tighten up the rules, so both of your parents had to be Athenian
or someone who’s particularly wealthy could become politically in order for you to be able to participate.
powerful, and so oÄces were held by rotation, instead of by election.
Beth: Right inside the museum, we can see examples of democracy in
Steven: zere were few positions that were voted on. zose were action. zere are primitive machines for choosing who would sit on
positions where particular skills were required. For instance, Pericles the juries.
was re-elected to be the general some 15 times.
Steven: We also see inscriptions in small pieces of poxery that were
Beth: He was essentially the leader or the president of Athens during used to vote to ostracize public leaders that were seen to have become
about a 30-year period. But it’s important to remember what we mean corrupt.
by the ideas of democracy that were started and formulated here.
Steven: Well, they were extremely limited. In order to be able to take
Model of the Athenian Agora in the Agora Museum showing the 2nd century C.E. (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Beth: And so if one citizen was seen to be usurping power, the citizens falls to reputation for capacity, class considerations not being allowed
could vote to ostracize him, and he would have to actually leave to interfere with merit. Nor again does poverty bar the way. “If a man
Athens. So this is a good reminder that there were a lot of checks in is able to serve the state, “he is not hindered by the obscurity of his
place against any one person assuming too much political power. condition.”
Steven: But importantly, it was during the ~wh century, that the Steven: So what Pericles by way of zucydides is laying out here, is
philosophy behind democratic rule was set forth, and probably the this notion of a meritocracy, and that no able person’s ability is lost
most famous expression of that was wrixen by the historian due to having been born without wealth.
zucydides, who chronicled the Peloponnesian War, that is the war
between the Athenians and the Spartans, and zucydides recounts in Beth: And the idea of equality before the law. zese are fundamental
his history a funeral oration Pericles gave during the early stages of principles to western ideas of democracy. It’s no wonder that we look
the war with Sparta. back to Athens in the ~wh century B.C.E. and heroize it maybe a bit
too much sometimes.
Beth: “If we look to our laws, they a}ord equal justice to all in their
private di}erences. If to social standing advancement in public life
Steven: Well, especially considering how fragile it was, and how The Athenian Agora and the experiment in democracy 110
limited it was, and how short-lived it was.
Beth: zis is the main religious festival in Athens, dedicated to
Beth: So this is a space that started out as a place for market, as a place Athena, the goddess who is the protectoress of the city. So we can
of buying and selling, and gradually during the archaic and then the imagine as we look over the Agora, a procession of Athenians making
classical period, became a place of government with administrative their way up to the Parthenon.
buildings, and also some sacred spots as well, although the primary
sacred spot was of course on the Acropolis. Steven: I love to look over the Agora, and to imagine the great
philosopher Socrates walking through here, causing trouble, asking
Steven: We also have increasingly substantial structures built in the questions.
~wh century in the Agora, and one of the most important is called
the Stoa. People would have conducted business here. Political Beth: Asking uncomfortable questions that would ultimately make
discussions might have taken place here. All kinds of civic life. Once a him an enemy of the Athenian state…
year, a great procession would make it’s way through the Agora and
up to the sacred mount. Steven: …and lead to his execution.
Watch the video. <hxps://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=278
&v=TYXCcTchLnI>
View of the Athenian Agora from the Acropolis (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
30. The Parthenon, Athens
A CONVERSATION
Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker
Iktinos and Kallikrates, Parthenon (from the northeast), Acropolis, Athens, 437-432 B.C.E. (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
ois is a transcript of a conversation conducted walking around the everyone had an acropolis—that is, had a forti~ed hill within its city
Acropolis in Athens, Greece. because these were warring states.
Steven: We’re looking at the Parthenon. zis is a huge marble temple Beth: In the ~wh century, Athens was the most powerful city state and
to the goddess Athena. that’s the period that the Parthenon dates to.
Beth: We’re on the top of a rocky outcropping in the city of Athens Steven: zis precinct became a sacred one rather than a defensive
very high up, overlooking the city and the Aegean Sea. one. zis building has had tremendous inuence not only because
it becomes the symbol of the birth of democracy, but also because
Steven: Athens was just one of many Greek city states and almost of its extraordinary architectural re~nement. ze period when this
111
The Parthenon, Athens 112
was built in the ~wh century (constructed 447-38 B.C.E, sculpture
completed 432 B.C.E.) is considered the High Classical moment, and
for so much of Western history, we have measured our later
achievements against this perfection.
Beth: It’s hard not to recognize so many buildings in the West. zere’s
certainly an association especially to buildings in Washington, D.C.,
and that’s not a coincidence.
Steven: Because this is the birthplace of democracy—it was a limited
democracy, but democracy nevertheless.
Beth: zere was a series of reforms in the ~wh century in Athens that
allowed more and more people to participate in the government.
Jacques Carrey, Sketch of the West Pediment of the Parthenon (Athena and
Poseidon at far right), 1674, red and black chalk (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris)
(photo: Alpunin, CC-BY-SA-4) <hmps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ЛВ_
Парфенон_Жак_Каррей.jpg>
Steven: Both of these gods gave the people of this city a giw and
then they had to choose. Poseidon strikes a rock and from it springs
forth the saltwater of the sea. zis had to do with the giw of naval
superiority.
Contemporary view of Athens, with the Acropolis beyond (photo: Steven Zucker, Beth: Athena o}ered in contrast an olive tree. ze idea of the land of
CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) prosperity, of peace. ze Athenians chose Athena’s giw. zere actually
is site here on the Acropolis where the Athenians believed you could
Steven: We think that the city of Athens had between 300,000-400,000 see the mark of the trident from Poseidon where he struck the ground
inhabitants and only about 50,000 were actually considered citizens. and also the tree that Athena o}ered.
If you were a woman or, obviously, if you were a slave, you were not
participating in this democratic experiment. Steven: Actually the modern Greeks have replanted an olive tree in
that space. Let’s talk about the building. It is really what we think of
when we think of a Greek temple, but the style is speci~c. zis is a
Doric temple.
Beth: zis is a very limited idea of democracy.
Steven: zis building is dedicated to Athena, and in fact the city itself
is named awer her—and of course, there’s a myth. Two gods vying for
the honor of being the patron of this city…
Beth: …those two gods are Poseidon and Athena. Poseidon is the god
of the sea, and Athena has many aspects. She’s the goddess of wisdom,
she is associated with war, and with a kind of intelligence about
creating and making things.
Detail, Lithograph by Kaeppelin et Cie., ca. 1840, Athena and Poseidon, Amasis Iktinos and Kallikrates, Parthenon (east facade), Acropolis, Athens, 447-432 B.C.E.
Painter, Amic black-qgure amphora, c.540 B.C.E. (Cabinet des Medailles, Paris) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
(photo: Shakko, CC-BY-SA-4.0) <hmps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:
Athena_Poseidon_ Cdm_Paris_DeRidder222.jpg> Beth: Although it has Ionic elements, which we’ll get to.
Steven: ze Doric features are really easy to identify. You have massive
columns with shallow broad utes—the vertical lines. zose columns
go down directly into the oor of the temple which is called the
stylobate and at the top the capitals are very simple. zere’s a lixle
are that rises up to a simple rectangular block, called an abacus. Just
above that are triglyphs and metopes.
113 Smarthistory guide to Ancient Greek Art
Annotated diagram of triglyphs, metopes, and pediment, Iktinos and Kallikrates (Phidias directed the sculptural program), Parthenon, Acropolis, Athens, 447-432 B.C.E.
(photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Beth: It’s important to say that this building was covered with and they walked around it either on the north or south sides to the
sculpture. zere were sculpture in the metopes, there were sculpture east and the entrance. Right above the entrance in the sculptures of
in the pediments and, in an unprecedented way, a frieze that ran all the pediment, they could see the story of Athena and Poseidon vying
the way around four sides of the building just inside this outer row to be the patron of the city of Athens. On the frieze just inside, they
of columns that we see. Now this is an Ionic feature. Art historians saw themselves, perhaps—at least in one interpretation— involved
talk about how this building combines Doric elements with Ionic in the Panathenaic Procession, the religious procession in honor of
elements. the goddess Athena. zis was a building that you walked up to, you
walked around, and inside was this gigantic sculpture of Athena.
Frieze reconstruction, Iktinos and Kallikrates (Phidias directed the sculptural Iktinos and Kallikrates, Parthenon (west facade with crane), Acropolis, Athens,
program), Parthenon, Acropolis, Athens, 447-432 B.C.E. (photo: Steven Zucker, CC 447-432 B.C.E. (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Steven: zese were all sculptures that we believe were overseen by
Steven: In fact there were four Ionic columns inside the west end of the great sculptor Phidias. One of my favorite parts are the metopes,
the temple.
Beth: When the citizens of Athens walked up the sacred way, perhaps
for religious procession or festival, they encountered the west end,
The Parthenon, Athens 114
carved with scenes that showed the Greeks baxling various enemies
either directly or metaphorically: the Greeks baxling the Amazons,
the Greeks against the Trojans, the Lapiths against the Centaurs, and
the Gigantomachy—the Greek gods against the Titans.
Beth: All of these baxles signi~ed the ascendancy of Greece and of
the Athenians, of their triumphs: civilization over barbarism, rational
thought over chaos.
Phidias(?), Parthenon sculptures, metope with Bamle of Lapiths and Centaurs,
447-32 B.C.E. (British Museum, London) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Steven: You’ve just hit on the very meaning of this building. zis is not
the ~rst temple to Athena on this site. Just a lixle bit to the right as
we look at the east end there was an older temple to Athena that was
destroyed when the Persians invaded. zis was a devastating blow to
the Athenians.
Beth: One really can’t overstate the importance of the Persian War for
the Athenian mindset that created the Parthenon. Athens was invaded
and beyond that, the Persians sacked the Acropolis, sacked the sacred
site, the temples, and destroyed the buildings.
Steven: zey burned them down. In fact, the Athenians took a vow
that they would never remove the ruins of the old temple to Athena…
Beth: …so they would remember it forever.
Steven: But a generation later they did.
Beth: zey did, well, there was a peace that was established with Phidias, Athena Pathenos, 447-32 B.C.E., this is a 3rd century C.E. copy known
the Persians, and some historians think that that allowed them to as Varvakeion found in Athens (National Archaeological Museum, Athens) (photo:
renege on that vow, and Pericles, the leader of Athens and a sort Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
of statesman-orator-general, embarked on this enormous, very
expensive building campaign. Steven: Since that sculpture doesn’t exist any longer, we know
somebody did that. We need to imagine this building not pristine and
Steven: Historians believe that he was able to fund that because the white but rather brightly colored, and also a building that was used.
Athenians had become the leaders of what is called the Delian League, zis was a storehouse. It was the treasury, and so we have to imagine
an association of Greek city states that paid a kind of tax to help that it was absolutely full of valuable stu}.
protect Greece against Persia, but Pericles dipped into that treasury
and built this building. Beth: In fact we have records that give us some idea of what was
stored here. We think about temples or churches or mosques as places
Beth: zis alliance of Greek city states—their treasure, their tax where you go in to worship. zat’s not how Greek religion work.
money, their tribute—was originally located in Delos, hence the zere usually was an altar on the outside where sacri~ces were made
Delian League, but Pericles managed to have that treasure moved and the temple was the house of the god or goddess, but with the
here to Athens and actually housed in the Acropolis. ze sculpture Parthenon, art historians and archeologists have not been able to
of Athena herself, which was made of gold and ivory, Phidias said if locate an altar outside, so we’ve wondered what was this building?
we need money, we can melt down the enormous amount of gold that One answer is it was a treasury.
decorates this sculpture of Athena.
115 Smarthistory guide to Ancient Greek Art toward the center. zis is not new, but the degree to which it’s used
here—and the subtlety in the way it’s used—is unprecedented.
Steven: It also functions symbolically. It is up on this hill. It commands
this extraordinary view from all parts of the city, and so it was a Steven: For instance, in those Doric columns, you can see that there’s
symbol of both the city’s wealth and power. a taper and you assume that it’s a straight line but the Greeks wanted
ever so slight a sense of the organic. zat the weight of the building
was being expressed in the bulge, the entasis of the column, about a
third of the way from the boxom. But in this case, every single column
bulges only 11/16th of an inch the entire length of that column. ze
way that the Greeks pulled this o} is they would bring column drums
up to the site. zey would carefully carve the base and the top and
then they would carve in between.
View of the Athenian Agora from the Acropolis (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-
SA 2.0)
Beth: It’s a giw to Athena. When you make a giw to your patron
goddess, you want visitors to be awed by the image of the goddess
that was inside and of her home.
Steven: zis isn’t any goddess, this is the goddess of wisdom, so the
ability of man to understand our world and its rules mathematically,
and then to express them in a structure like this, is absolutely
appropriate.
Beth: Iktinos is a supreme mathematician. I mean we know that the
Greeks even in the Archaic period before this were concerned with
ideal proportions.
Steven: Pythagoras. Diagram showing entasis, Parthenon, Acropolis, Athens (photo: Steven Zucker, CC
BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Beth: Or the sculptor Polykleitos, and his sculpture of the Doryphoros,
searching for perfect proportions and harmony and using Beth: So we see this slight deviation in the columns, but we also see it
mathematics as the basis for thinking that through. not only vertically but also horizontally in the building.
Steven: We have that here. Steven: zat’s right. You assume that the stylobate (the oor of the
Beth: To an unbelievable degree. temple) is at but it’s not. Rain water would run o} it because the
edges are lower than the center.
Steven: What’s extraordinary is that its perfection is an illusion based Beth: But only very, very slightly lower.
on a series of subtle distortions that actually correct for the
imperfections of our sight. zat is, the Greeks recognize that human Steven: Across the long side of the temple, the center rises only 4 3/8
perception was itself awed, and that they needed to adjust for it in of an inch, and on the short sides of the temple, on the east and the
order to give the visual impression of perfection. zeir mathematics west side, the center rises by only 2 3/8 inches. But what happens is, it
and their building skills were precise enough to be able to pull this o}. corrects: our eye would naturally see a straight line, seen as if it rises
up at the corners a lixle bit, so it seems to us to be perfectly at. ze
Beth: Every stone was cut to ~t precisely. columns are all leaning in a lixle bit.
Steven: When we look at this building we assume it’s rectilinear—it’s Beth: You would expect the columns to be equidistant from one
full of right angles—and in fact, there’s hardly a right angle in this another, but in fact the columns on the edges are slightly closer to one
building. another than the columns in the center of each side.
Beth: zere’s another interpretation of these tiny deviations—that Steven: Architectural historians have hypothesized that the reason for
these deviations give the building a sense of dynamism, the sense this is because the column at the edge is in the sense an orphan.
of the organic, that otherwise it would seem static and lifeless. ze It doesn’t have anything past it. zerefore, it would seem to be less
Greeks had used this idea that art historians call entasis before in substantial. If we could make that column a lixle bit closer to the one
other buildings for slight adjustments For example, columns bulge
The Parthenon, Athens 116
next to it, it might compensate and it would have an even sense of
density across the building.
Beth: Placing of the columns closer together on the edges created a
problem in the levels above. One of the rules of the Doric order is that
there had to be a triglyph right above the center of a column or in
between each column.
Capitals and triglyphs, Iktinos and Kallikrates, Parthenon (south facade), Plan of the Parthenon (graphic: Io Herodotus, CC-BY-SA-4.0)
Acropolis, Athens, 447-432 B.C.E. (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) <hmps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/Parthenon_plan.png>
Steven: But they also wanted the triglyphs to be at the very edge, so Beth: First it was as we know an ancient Greek temple for Athena,
one triglyph would abut against another triglyph at the corner of the then it became a Greek Orthodox church, then a Roman Catholic
building. If in fact you’re placing your columns closer together, you church and then a mosque. In a war between the Oxomans—who
can actually solve for that problem. You can avoid the stretch of the were in control of Greece at this moment in history in the seventeenth
metope in between those triglyphs that would result, but because the century—and the Venetians. ze Venetians axacked the Parthenon,
columns are placed so close together, they had the opposite problem, the Oxomans used the Parthenon to hold ammunitions, or
which is to say that the metopes at the ends of the building would gunpowder. Gunpowder exploded from the inside, basically ripping
be too slender. What Phidias has done—in concert with Iktinos and the guts out of the Parthenon.
Kallikrates, the architects—is to create sculptural metopes that are
widest in the center, just like the spaces between the columns, and Steven: zen to add insult to injury, in the eighteenth century, Lord
actually the metopes themselves gradually become thinner as you Elgin received permission from the Turkish government to take
move to the edges, so that you can’t really even perceive the change sculptures that had already fallen o} the temple and bring them back
without measuring. to England. ze lion’s share of the great sculptures by Phidias are
now in London. But Greece recently built a museum just down the
Beth: ze general proportions of the building can be expressed hill from the Acropolis, speci~cally intended to house these sculptures
mathematically as X= 2Y + 1. Across the front we see eight columns should the British ever release them.
and along the sides, 17 columns. zat ratio also governs the spacing
between the columns and its relationship to the diameter of a column.
Math is everywhere.
Steven: If we look at the plan of the structure, we see the exterior
colonnade on all four sides. On the east and west end it’s actually a
double colonnade and on the long sides, inside the columns, a solid
masonry wall. You can enter rooms on the east and west only. ze
west has a smaller room with the four Ionic columns within it, but the
east room was larger and held the monumental sculpture of Athena.
It’s interesting. ze system that was used to create a vault that was
high enough to enclose a sculpture that was almost 40 feet high was
unique. zere was a U-shape of interior columns at two stories. zey
were Doric, and they surrounded the goddess. ze sculpture is now
lost but the building is almost lost as well. Here we come to one of the
great tragedies of Western architecture. zis building survived into
the seventeenth century and was in prexy good shape for 2000 years,
and it’s only in the modern era that it became a ruin.
117 Smarthistory guide to Ancient Greek Art
Steven: At least one theory states that this building was paid for by
plundered treasury from the Delian League, so there’s a long history
of contested ownership.
Beth: As we stand here very high up on the Acropolis overlooking
the Aegean Sea, islands beyond and mountains on this glorious day, I
can’t help but imagine standing inside the Parthenon between those
columns, which we can’t do today.
Leo von Krenze, Ideal View of the Acropolis, Athens, 1846, oil on canvas, 102.8
x 147.7 cm (Neue Pinakothek, Munich) (photo: Bayerische Staatsgemälde-
sammlungen, CC BY-SA 4.0)
Beth: Some have argued that Elgin saved the sculptures, as they would Iktinos and Kallikrates, Parthenon (with contemporary scapolding), Acropolis,
have been further damaged had he not removed them, but what to do Athens, 447-432 B.C.E. (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
about the future is uncertain.
Steven: ze site is undergoing tremendous restoration. zere are
cranes, there’s also sca}olding to maintain the ruin and not let it fall
into worst disrepair.
Beth: But if we could stand there—what would it feel like?
Steven: zere is this beautiful balance between the theoretical and the
physical. ze Greeks thought about mathematics as the way that we
could understand the divine, and here it is in our world.
Duveen Room, British Museum with Phidias (?), Parthenon Frieze, c. 438-32 B.C.E., Beth: zere’s something about the Parthenon that is both an o}ering
Pentelic marble (420 linear feet of the 525 that complete the frieze are in the British to Athena, the protector of Athens, but also something that’s a
Museum) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) monument to human beings, to the Athenians, to their brilliance, and
by extension I suppose in the modern era, human spirit generally.
Watch the video. <hxps://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=
962&v=tWDkBZC6U>
31. Phidias, Parthenon sculpture (pediments,
metopes and frieze)
A CONVERSATION
Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker
ois is the transcript of a conversation conducted at the British Museum, Steven: And the Parthenon is owen seen as the physical embodiment
London. of that con~dence, and while the building was constructed the
sculptures, which are every bit as important as the building itself, took
a few more years to ~nish.
Iktinos and Kallikrates, Parthenon (with modern scapolding), Acropolis, Athens, West frieze (copy) in the sunlight, Iktinos and Kallikrates, Parthenon, Acropolis,
447-432 B.C.E. (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) Athens, 447-432 B.C.E. (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Steven: High atop the natural forti~cation that is the Acropolis in Beth: So we’re here in the British Museum, which houses together
Athens is the sacred center of the city and some of the most celebrated with the Acropolis Museum in Athens and a few sculptures in the
buildings in all of western history. ze most famous is the Parthenon, Louvre, the vast majority of sculpture that was made for the
dedicated to the virgin goddess Athena. Parthenon. zese were overseen by the famous sculptor Phidias, and
sometimes we refer to the style of the sculpture that we see here as
Beth: We’re talking about the ~wh century B.C.E. in ancient Athens. “Phidian.” zere are three primary locations where we ~nd sculpture
zis is a period we refer to as the Classical, the high point of Greek on the Parthenon. Most obviously in the pediment, the triangular area
culture, and all of this comes right awer an important Greek victory at the very top of the temple, on both the east and west sides. Below
over the Persian Empire. that, there’re spaces called metopes, in between triglyphs. And lastly,
in the frieze—that is a band of continuous sculpture. ze Parthenon
Steven: ze Persians controlled an enormous area. Athens and in fact is an interesting building because it combines both Doric and Ionic
all of Greece, which was then divided into a series of distinct city elements. ze triglyphs and metopes are typical Doric elements, while
states, was tiny in comparison. But miraculously Athens was able to the frieze is considered a typical element of Ionic temples.
decisively defeat the Persians in 479 B.C.E.
Beth: For many art historians the Classical period of ancient Greece
is a result of the incredible optimism and con~dence, some would say
overcon~dence, of the Athenians in this period awer the defeat of the
Persians.
118
119 Smarthistory guide to Ancient Greek Art
Phidias, Parthenon, Detail of the East Pediment Sculpture (with visitors), pediment: c. 438-432 B.C.E. (British Museum, London) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Steven: What we see here in London—or the examples in Athens or Steven: And so right in the center of the pediment, at its point, would
in Paris—are marbles that have lost all their color. And it’s important have been the god Zeus giving birth to his daughter Athena, who was
to remember that all of these sculptures would have been very high born full-grown from his head.
up but were originally brightly colored and this would have helped
their visibility. And that’s especially true for the frieze, which would Beth: Sadly those central ~gures are lost. What we have on either side
have been atop the interior colonnade and so would have been seen are the ~gures who were present, some of whom are reacting to the
in shadow. birth of Athena.
Beth: When the Athenians approached the Parthenon on top of the Steven: ze pediment is traditionally read from lew to right and it
Acropolis, they approached the west side and walked around either begins with the dawn, the god Helios at his chariot representing the
the north or south sides to the east where the entrance was. rising sun.
Steven: And that means that they would have seen the west pediment Beth: Athena was born at sunrise, so this makes sense.
~rst, and then the east pediment. zis building is 2,500 years old and
it has su}ered terribly and so has the sculpture. And so what we’re Steven: ze baseline of the pediment functions as a horizon line. It’s
seeing is the result of the terrible abuse that this building has su}ered a brilliant interpretation of the space and it allows us to imagine the
over many centuries. ~gures rising up.
Beth: In many ways we’re lucky that anything survives for us to look Beth: And then we have the gods and goddesses on Mount Olympus
at. So let’s start with the west pediment. ze subject there is the present for the birth of Athena.
competition between Poseidon and Athena to be the patron deity of
the city of Athens. Steven: One of the ~gures that is in the best condition is the nude
~gure that we think is likely the god Dionysos, the god of wine. And
Steven: But we know who wins, because the city is named awer if it is, he looks like he is appropriately lounging perhaps with a cup
Athena and, sadly, almost nothing survives from the west pediment. of wine in his hand.
Beth: On the east pediment the story of the birth of Athena.
Phidias, Parthenon sculpture (pediments, metopes and frieze) 120
Steven: And the ~gure to her lew, even though the head has been lost,
seems taken aback. She seems to be directly reacting. Her body seems
to be jerking away. And so there is this sense of the momentary.
Beth: Dionysos and the other seated ~gure perhaps haven’t yet
noticed the momentous event of the birth of Athena.
Parthenon, Phidias, East Pediment Sculpture (Dionysus?), 438-432 B.C.E. (British
Museum, London) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Beth: zat Greek love of the human body, particularly the male nude, Phidias, Parthenon, Detail of the East Pediment Sculpture (Hestia, Dione,
and the articulation of the anatomy and the muscles of the body. Aphrodite?), 438-432 B.C.E (British Museum, London) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC
BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Steven: And while we see this ~gure at rest, the artist has been careful
to represent his body in such a way that we know his strength. Steven: On the right side, we have the famous group, the “zree
Goddesses”. And here we see the Greeks’ extraordinary ability to
Beth: As we approach the middle of the pediment where we would render not only the human body but the forms of clothing that both
have seen the birth of Athena, it appears as though there’s some obscure and reveal the body below it. For example, in the ~gure at the
acknowledgement of the action that’s taking place in the center of the right, who is reclining, if you look at the way that the cloth wraps
pediment. We have a standing ~gure who seems to be moving away around her upper thigh it is bunched up and so we know the thigh is
as though in surprise at the event that’s taking place. far below that cloth. At the same time, the torsion of that cloth reveals
the musculature underneath.
Duveen Room, British Museum with Phidias (?), Parthenon Frieze, c. 438-32 B.C.E., Pentelic marble (420 linear feet of the 525 that complete the frieze are in the British
Museum) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
121 Smarthistory guide to Ancient Greek Art
Beth: But this isn’t the way that drapery really looks. zis is the Steven: zey weren’t used to drinking at all and they decided to
Phidian style that we associate with this Classical moment in ancient make o} with the Lapith women. What we’re seeing is the baxle that
Greece where the drapery acts almost like water owing around the resulted. In several of the metopes, the Centaurs are victorious. In
body. one extraordinary metope, we see a Lapith who has been killed by
a Centaur. ze Centaur rises up on his hind legs in victory, and the
Steven: Some of it is carved very deeply so that you get these black rich Lapith, whose body is so beautifully rendered, lies below. ze body
shadows. zere’s a nobility and a sense of luxury. zese are beings even in its damaged state shows the nobility of the Greeks and the
without care. And then ~nally, at the extreme right corner, we have Greeks’ love for the human body.
this brilliant form of a horse’s head, which belonged to the chariot of
the Goddess of the Moon.
Phidias, Parthenon, Detail of the East Pediment Sculpture (right side), 438-432 Phidias(?), Parthenon sculptures, metope with Bamle of Lapiths and Centaurs,
B.C.E (British Museum, London) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) 447-32 B.C.E. (British Museum, London) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Beth: And so on one side we have the rising of the day with Helios Beth: In another metope we see the victorious Lapith, who has got
and his chariot. Here we have the end of the day, with the Goddess of a Centaur by the neck pulling him back, while the Centaur himself
the Moon. seems to be reaching to his back, perhaps to a wound inicted by
the Lapith. And what I’m struck by in both of these metopes is the
Steven: And whereas the horses at dawn are full of energy, here the way that the ~gures almost break the bound of the metope, creating
horse looks exhausted. Its mouth, its nostrils seem almost to be resting diagonal forms that have an incredible amount of energy.
on the edge of the building.
Beth: Just below the pediment we ~nd a band occupied by triglyphs
and metopes, and on each of the four sides we ~nd four mythic baxles.
Phidias(?), Parthenon sculptures, metope with Bamle of Lapiths and Centaurs,
447-32 B.C.E. (British Museum, London) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Steven: So each side of the building represents its own story, and here Steven: Look at how the beauty of that torso is highlighted against
at the British Museum, the “Lapiths against the Centaurs.” And all the rhythmic folds of the drape behind. zis is clearly ~ction. In the
four of these stories are really stand-ins for the way that the Greeks middle of baxle, you don’t have a perfectly splayed drape. But for the
saw themselves in relationship to their enemy, the Persians. zat is, sculptor the subject was clearly the beauty of the body. Look at the
that the Greeks stood for civilization, for order, and the Persians to the way the Lapith’s lew leg pushes out at a diagonal as he tries to get
east represented a kind of disorder, a kind of chaos and barbarism. a foothold to help support him as he pulls back the Centaur’s body,
almost like it was a bow. You get a sense of the enormous energy
Beth: ze story between the Lapiths (Greeks from mythology) and that’s being expended here.
the Centaurs (half man, half horse) begins at a wedding, where the
Centaurs have had too much to drink. Beth: ze center of this composition is empty, and the ~gures frame
that center, creating these arcs that pull against one another.
Phidias(?), Parthenon sculptures, metope with Bamle of Lapiths and Centaurs Phidias, Parthenon sculpture (pediments, metopes and frieze) 122
(oblique view), 447-32 B.C.E. (British Museum, London) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC
BY-NC-SA 2.0) Beth: So let’s go have a look at the justly famous frieze from the
Parthenon. We should say that no one is entirely certain what the
Steven: zis particular Lapith is virtually a freestanding sculpture frieze represents, but there is a general consensus that the frieze
(sculpture you can walk around) but the Parthenon is also rightly represents the Panathenaic Procession–that is, an important yearly
known for a shallower relief sculpture. It would have been seen not procession that went up the sacred way to the Acropolis in honor of
on the outside of the temple but just inside the exterior columns. the Goddess Athena.
Steven: And the procession would make its way to one of the most
sacred objects in all of Athens, an ancient all of wood statue of the
goddess Athena. zis is extraordinarily rare. In almost every other
ancient Greek temple context we see images from Greek mythology,
we don’t see representations of Greeks of their own day.
Beth: What we’re seeing is an idealized image of the Athenians as
though they projected themselves into the realm of the gods. And
we know that the Athenians were incredibly self-con~dent. zey had
defeated the Persians against all odds and so this surely must have
something to do with the way they imagined themselves on the frieze.
Steven: Close to the beginning of the frieze on the west front, you see
preparations for the procession. Look at the two ~gures on horseback.
Look how easily they ride on those horses that seem full of energy.
Phidias(?), Parthenon sculptures, frieze with Panathenaic Procession, 438-432 B.C.E. (British Museum, London) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
123 Smarthistory guide to Ancient Greek Art
zeir mouths were closed as a representation of their sense of calm
and control. And these were axributes that the Greeks revered. And
here, like on the metopes, we’re seeing an expression of the Greeks’
ability to control nature, to control these powerful animals.
Beth: ze next group that we see are charioteers, and actually there
was a chariot competition as part of the Panathenaic Procession.
Phidias(?), Parthenon sculptures, frieze with Panathenaic Procession, 438-432
B.C.E. (British Museum, London) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Beth: ze ~gure on the right pulls his horse back and leans back
himself. ze ~gure on the lew turns back to look at him as his horse
gallops forward. ze naturalism in the movement here is an amazing
artistic achievement.
Steven: zis would have been brightly painted and in fact, the Phidias(?), Parthenon sculptures, frieze with Panathenaic Procession, 438-432
background would have been a brilliant blue. B.C.E. (British Museum, London) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Steven: In addition to the chariots, there are animals that have been
brought for sacri~ce. Now, as we wrap around the building towards
the east end, the energy that had existed with the horsemen calms and
slows, and then here the series of women who walk solemnly forward.
We see large seated ~gures. zese are the gods and goddesses of
Mount Olympus, but interspersed with smaller representations of
standing humans.
Beth: And so we can di}erentiate the gods and goddesses from mortal
humans by their size.
Steven: But it’s extraordinary that the Athenians are placing
themselves in the immediate company of the gods.
Detail of horse head with holes for bridle, Phidias(?), Parthenon sculptures, frieze
with Panathenaic Procession, 438-432 B.C.E. (British Museum, London) (photo:
Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Beth: And there were also metal axachments, where appropriate.
Steven: And in fact you can see three holes across the head of the
horse on the right, which would have originally held the bridal.
Beth: Look at the ~gures. zeir bodies are ideal and athletic. zey
move easily.
Steven: zere’s also great axention to the structures of the body Phidias(?), Parthenon sculptures, frieze with Panathenaic Procession, 438-432
itself. ze people who carve this stone understood the musculature, B.C.E. (British Museum, London) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
understood the bone structure of the human body. zere are 60 horses
on both the north and the south side. zere’s incredible variety and
rhythm as these horses overlap and move across this ribbon of stone.
Beth: Look at the overlapping legs of the horses, you can almost hear Beth: We see two ~gures, an older male ~gure and a younger smaller
them galloping. But as animated as the horses are, the men themselves ~gure, the gender of which has been debated, and they seem to
seem calm and noble. be folding a garment. We understand this as the peplos (woman’s
garment), which was regularly woven to clothe the sacred olivewood
Steven: We’re seeing almost all of their faces in perfect pro~le, which sculpture of Athena.
the Greeks believed was the most noble way of representing a face.
Phidias, Parthenon sculpture (pediments, metopes and frieze) 124
example, the fact that the Athenians are puxing themselves together
with the gods, and this has led art historians to look for alternative
readings.
Steven: zese sculptures are 2,500 years old. It’s no wonder that there
are persistent questions. No maxer what is being represented here,
there is consensus that these are some of the ~nest sculptures from
Classical antiquity.
Beth: And so it’s no wonder that the government of Greece and
the Acropolis Museum are demanding the return of these beautiful
marbles.
Phidias(?), Parthenon sculptures, frieze with Panathenaic Procession, showing Steven: But it’s such a complicated issue. When, in the early
Athena (center) and Hephaistos (right), 438-432 B.C.E. (British Museum, London) nineteenth century, Lord Elgin (a Scoxish nobleman, soldier,
(photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) politician, and diplomat) removed these marbles and transported
them to London, he had permission from the Oxoman authorities.
Steven: And the ~gure immediately to the right is Athena, but she has Beth: But that permission was limited and interpreted very liberally
got her back to the peplos. And look how beautifully she is rendered, by Lord Elgin.
even here in this badly damaged relief sculpture. You can see her easy
stance on that chair. Steven: What do we do with museums like the British Museum, like
the Louvre in Paris, which are fundamentally the result of
Beth: We again see that very stylized drapery that clings to her right imperialism…
calf and her thighs and outlines her breasts, and cascades and bunches
up at her hips. Beth: …when the countries in Europe were imperial powers and the
objects were owen taken forcefully or not entirely legally.
Steven: I love the way Hephaistos turns around and looks back over
his right shoulder to address her. Steven: ze question is, what do we do now?
Beth: We should say that although there’s general agreement that Watch the video. <hxps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF_W0jQ7bi0>
this is the Panathenaic Procession, there are many anomalies. For
Phidias(?), Parthenon sculptures, frieze with Panathenaic Procession, showing humans (lel) amidst gods (center/right), 438-432 B.C.E. (British Museum, London) (photo:
Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
32. Who owns the Parthenon sculptures?
A CONVERSATION
Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker
Duveen Room, British Museum with Phidias (?), Parthenon Frieze, c. 438-32 B.C.E., Pentelic marble (420 linear feet of the 525 that complete the frieze are in the British
Museum) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
ois is the transcript of a conversation conducted at the British Museum. are more than 2,000 years old. But the controversy of how these
sculptures ended up in London is more than 200 years old.
Steven: We’re in London at the British Museum, standing in a gallery
devoted to the sculpture of the Parthenon. Beth: What we’re looking at are sculptures that are divorced from the
building that they came from, the Parthenon.
Beth: zis is a gallery that was designed to house these sculptures,
which arrived at the British Museum in the early nineteenh century. Steven: But they were integral to it and it’s impossible to divorce the
Now we’re looking at some of the most revered sculpture in all of meaning of these sculptures from their original context.
Western art.
Beth: Let’s spend a minute looking at one of the panels from the frieze
Steven: zese sculptures were seen as the High Classical style that of the Parthenon, and thinking about why these sculptures and this
for hundreds of years we believed we could only hope to re-achieve. classical moment of ancient Greece have been so revered in Western
zese sculptures and the building that it came from, the Parthenon, art. ze sculptures on the frieze depict a procession, mostly of horses
and riders.
125
Who owns the Parthenon sculptures? 126
brings back to France to ~ll the new Musée Napoleon, which becomes
the Louvre Museum. So you have this competition among European
powers for the great works of classical antiquity.
Steven: So the man responsible for bringing these sculptures from
Athens to London, Lord Elgin, was a Scoxish nobleman. And he
received an extremely important diplomatic mission. He became
ambassador to the Oxoman Empire, from 1799-1803.
Beth: And he became ambassador at a critical moment when the
British had just won a decisive baxle in Egypt, so the balance of power
shiwed away from France.
Phidias(?), Parthenon West Frieze, Slab 2 (Horsemen), c. 438-32 B.C.E., Pentelic Steven: So for the Oxomans, the French were out and the British were
marble (British Museum, London) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) in. And Elgin was the primary representative of the British Crown,
which gave him tremendous power. Now from the beginning, Elgin
Steven: And look at the naturalism here. ze artists have been imagined that he could help develop the arts of Britain.
examining the anatomy of the nude male, but also of the horse. Look
at the way in which the man’s thigh bulges out as it presses against Beth: And what bexer way to do that than to furnish the British
the horse. You can see the concavity of the hip bone. Look at the way public with examples of this great moment in Western sculpture, the
that the artist has carefully depicted the twisting of the body. ze legs sculptures from the Parthenon? His ~rst idea was to create copies, to
are moving forward, but the chest turns to face us. make molds and to have artists draw. His motivation was certainly
personal in terms of decorating his home in the antique style, but it
Beth: We can see the ribcage, we can see the muscles in the abdomen, was also generous, it was also educational.
the muscles in the shoulders and the arms. zat love of anatomy that
we know from ancient Greek art. Whereas the horse on the right rears Steven: He asked the British government for funding to help support
up and has a sense of passion and energy, the human ~gures have a this artistic endeavor. zey declined, but Elgin went ahead anyway
calm nobility. and he hired a team that he sent to Athens. Now the building had
a long, complex history and was built as a temple to the goddess
Steven: Awer the French Revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte seizes Athena, but then it had been turned into a church, and eventually
power. France had been expanding its territory, but under Napoleon, it had been turned into a mosque. But the Oxomans also stored
it begins a campaign to conquer much of Europe. gunpowder there, and when they were axacked by the Venetians, the
building exploded…
Beth: It’s against this background that the sculpture in this room is
taken from Athens and makes its way to London. ze other important Beth: …leaving debris across the Acropolis. When Elgin’s team wanted
context here is the interest in ancient Greek and Roman antiquities to begin their work they encountered some problems from the local
that just explodes in the eighteenth century. You have Napoleon not Oxoman authorities. And so they asked Elgin back in Constantinople
only conquering territories but bringing scholars with him to help to secure for them a ~rman (a permit) which would allow them to
him identify important works of art, important monuments, that he do the work on the Acropolis. ze very ~rst ~rman or permit doesn’t
survive but the second ~rman has come down to us in translation. It
describes what Elgin’s men were allowed to do. It says:
Verneda Giacomo Milheau, oe Bombardment of the Parthenon on September 26, 1687, 720 x 250 cm (Benaki Museum, Athens)
127 Smarthistory guide to Ancient Greek Art
Steven: zey were allowed to draw and they were allowed to cast, they these sculptures—and the Parthenon itself and the buildings on the
were allowed to erect sca}olding. Acropolis–become a symbol of national identity for the Greeks.
Beth: And they were allowed to excavate. But the critical passage of Steven: And the Greeks ask for the marbles back.
this ~rman or this permit reads, “No one should meddle with their
sca}olding or implements nor hinder them from taking away any Beth: So where does that leave us today? ze argument that Elgin’s
pieces of stone with inscriptions or ~gures.” And it’s that last phrase actions were illegal.
that reads somewhat ambiguously. What happens is Elgin’s men see
an opportunity, through cajoling, through bribery, through using the Steven: Although his critics state that in fact he exceeded his legal
power of Elgin’s oÄce to extend the interpretation of this ~rman authority, there’s also the argument that is persuasive for many, that
enough to allow them to take sculpture from the Parthenon itself. Elgin, although doing damage to the building and to many of the
sculptures, ultimately preserved the sculptures.
Steven: And the act of removing the sculpture was necessarily an act
of destruction. Beth: Before Elgin got there, the French were taking sculptures from
the Parthenon. So you have not only the French taking things, you
Beth: zis is a diÄcult and expensive endeavor, and Elgin is laying out have tourists who are picking things up o} the Acropolis or buying
his own money to do this. things from local inhabitants. Everyone wanted a piece of the
monuments on the Acropolis.
Steven: In fact, he’s borrowing to be able to a}ord this project.
Beth: He took 247 of the 524 feet of the frieze. He took ~ween metopes
out of 92 and he took seventeen sculptures from the pediment. Now
we’re just talking about sculptures from the Parthenon, there were
many other things that he took.
Steven: By this time, he was in deep debt, and he o}ered to sell the
sculptures to the British government.
Beth: He basically had no choice. Even storing them was enormously
expensive.
Steven: ze British government convened a parliamentary
commission to investigate the circumstances of the acquisition and to
determine the quality of the sculpture and to sexle on a price.
Beth: Ultimately the government did decide that the sculptures were
acquired legally and they paid Elgin £35,000, less than half of what he
estimated his own costs to be.
Steven: But from the very beginning, there was real criticism leveled Charles Heath, Temporary Elgin Room, oe British Museum, 1825, etching, 11.6 x
against Elgin for removing the sculptures from Greece and for the 15.5 cm (oe British Museum, London)
destruction that that necessarily caused.
Steven: But the counterargument there is strong also: Elgin actually
destroyed the temple in part to remove the sculptures. ze sculptures
themselves su}ered and in a number of cases were exposed to
seawater. And the British Museum does not have an unblemished role
in protecting the sculptures either. In the early twentieth century,
they were responsible for an overzealous cleaning.
Beth: zere’s also another argument that’s owen made, that if the
marbles were sent back, it would have a kind of ripple e}ect and so
many of the objects that are in encyclopedic museums in the West,
like the Louvre, like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, like the British
Museum, would also need to be sent back to their place of origin.
Steven: ze Greeks have built a beautiful modern museum designed
especially to house these objects.
Beth: And we could ~nally have the opportunity to see them all
together.
Archibald Archer, oe Temporary Elgin Room in 1819 with portraits of stap, a Steven: If they were returned, we would also see them closer to their
trustee and visitors, 1819, 94 x 132.7 cm (oe British Museum, London) original context, we could look out those magni~cent glass windows
to the Acropolis itself to see these objects in that brilliant
Beth: And soon awer the arrival of the Elgin marbles here in Britain, Mediterranean sunlight.
Greece ~nally achieves independence from the Oxoman Empire and
Who owns the Parthenon sculptures? 128
Steven: But the Parthenon is distinct and it’s di}erent in part because
it’s not only deeply important to the Greeks, it has become deeply
important to American culture, to British culture, to French culture,
to a kind of global culture. What the ancient Greeks did in Athens
in the ~wh century has had the most profound impact on modern
society that this culture has been embraced universally. ze classical
art historian and archeologist Mary Beard puts this just beautifully.
Beth: She wrote, “ze debate that surrounds the Elgin Marbles forces
us to face the unanswerable question of who can, and should, own
the monument. Can a single monument act as a symbol both of
nationhood and of world culture?” So how do we reconcile the
universal meaning of these sculptures, the meaning that we’ve given
them: that these sculptures stand for democracy?
Steven: And for the nobility of humankind.
Phidias(?), Parthenon, South Frieze, Slabs 43, 44, 45 with visitors, c. 438-32 B.C.E., Beth: How do we balance that with the fact that it was indeed the
Pentelic marble (British Museum, London) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA Greeks who made this incredible contribution to Western civilization?
2.0)
Watch the video. <hxps://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue
=646&v=QRH105_ztAw>
Beth: Another critical argument made for keeping the sculptures here
is that the British Museum is a universal museum.
Steven: And so here it’s possible to compare ancient Greek art with
ancient Assyrian art, with ancient Egyptian art, with art from East
Asia, with art from Africa. And there is real bene~t to that.
Beth: You could say that the collections of the British Museum
promote tolerance and cross-cultural understanding–that we
understand the objects in the British Museum as being owned by
humanity broadly.
Steven: Except that it just happens to be in the capital of one of the
world’s great former empires.
Beth: And an empire that commixed violent acts against its colonies. Iktinos and Kallikrates, Parthenon (West facade with crane), 447-432 B.C.E.,
And while the Greeks make the argument that the sculptures are Acropolis, Athens (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
a central part of Greek identity, there are those that argue that the
Greeks of ancient Athens are completely di}erent Greeks than the
Greeks of the modern era.
Triglyphs, from Iktinos and Kallikrates, Parthenon, Acropolis, Athens, 447-432 Additional resources:
B.C.E. (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
How the Parthenon lost its Marbles (National Geographic) <hxps://www.
nationalgeographic.com/archaeology-and-history/magazine/2017/03-04/
parthenon-sculptures-british-museum-controversy/>
ze British Museum on the Parthenon sculptures <hxp://www.
britishmuseum.org/about_us/news_and_press/statements/
parthenon_sculptures.aspx>
ze Acropolis Museum <hxp://www.theacropolismuseum.gr/en/content/
museum-history>
William St Clair, Imperialism, Art & Restitution: ze Parthenon and the
Elgin Marbles <hxps://law.wustl.edu/harris/Conferences/imperialism/
StClair_elgin_~nal_PAPER%20.pdf>
33. Plaque of the Ergastines
A CONVERSATION
Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker
Phidias (?), Plaque of the Ergastines, 445-438 B.C.E., Pentelic marble (Amica), 0.96 x 2.07 m, fragment from the frieze on the east side of the Parthenon (Musée du Louvre,
Paris) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
ois is the transcript of a conversation conducted at the Louvre, Paris. Steven: In this case, the word frieze refers to a band of sculpture
that’s about three feet tall, that wrapped around the entire Parthenon,
Steven: We’re in the Louvre in Paris, and we’re looking at a fragment just inside the ~rst colonnade. It would have been really hard to see
of the frieze from the Parthenon on the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. because it would have been in shadow. Here, we see no traces of paint,
but originally, this would have been very brightly colored. We think
Beth: Some of this frieze is in the Acropolis Museum, in Athens. Some that the background was blue. We think there were highlights of gold
of it is here, in Paris, and most of it is in the British Museum, in on the ~gures. zey would have been garishly painted, to our eyes.
London. In fact, the scene just to the right is in the British Museum in It’s important to remember that we would have been looking up at
London. this. It would have been quite high, and so we’re seeing it much closer
than originally intended.
129
Plaque of the Ergastines 130
Beth: Historians generally agree that this represents the Panathenaic
Procession. All the citizens of Athens gathered in a procession, made
their way up the sacred way to the Acropolis, this high point in the
city, where the great temple to Athena, the Parthenon stood.
Steven: Young women would have woven a woolen peplos to clothe
the statue of Athena. zese were specially regarded young women
(called Ergastines) who came from leading families in Athens.
Beth: Now, the peplos, this garment, was not for the colossal sculpture
of Athena that was inside the Parthenon, but this was for an ancient
sculpture that was very sacred that stood in a temple right next to the
Parthenon.
Steven: zat’s the Erechtheion. Phidias (?), Plaque of the Ergastines (detail), 445-438 B.C.E., Pentelic marble (Musée
du Louvre, Paris) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Beth: And so, a new garment was woven and given to this ancient
olive wood sculpture of Athena. Beth: Phidias, who we generally think of as in charge of the sculptural
program on the Parthenon, developed a style that we see here: very
intricate folds following the forms of the body. We see the drapery
style in axer areas, and as the fabric moves around the breasts of
the women, but also in the very curvilinear folds at the edges of the
peplos, where it’s folded over and belted, and still in other areas,
where the fabric falls in very straight lines that might remind us of
the uting of a column.
Steven: ze ~gures are standing in contrapposto, that is, for the young
women, in general, their lew leg is the weight bearing leg. zeir right
leg is moving forward, and we can see the knee breaking the fall of the
drapery. zere is this alternation between movement and the static.
Phidias (?), Plaque of the Ergastines (detail), 445-438 B.C.E., Pentelic marble (Musée Beth: Look at the gracefulness of the ~gure on the far right. Look at
du Louvre, Paris) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) how she’s walking to her right, but turns her body to the lew, and
seems to address a companion behind her. zese ~gures may have
Steven: ze Panathenaic Procession, as represented in the frieze on carried ceremonial objects that they’re o}ering to the male ~gures,
the Parthenon shows not only the procession of these young women or the male ~gures may be giving something to them. ze precise
bringing the peplos, but also animals being brought for sacri~ce; narrative is unclear.
libations. All the things you need for an important ancient ceremony.
Beth: ze interesting thing about the frieze is that it seems to show a
contemporary event. zat is, it’s not a mythological event, which was
normal decoration for a temple, but something from the civic life from
Athens, and remember Athens is a democracy at this moment in the
~wh century. ze citizens of Athens look beautiful, noble, heroic.
Steven: Well, the nobility is so clear in this fragment. We see these
women solemnly processing. zey’re interrupted by two male ~gures,
but look of the clarity of the carving. zere such solemnity; there such
a sense of reverence.
Beth: Of dignity; one immediately gets a sense that this is a religious Phidias (?), Plaque of the Ergastines, 445-438 B.C.E., Pentelic marble (Amica), 0.96
procession in honor of Athena, the goddess, the patron of the city of x 2.07 m (Musée du Louvre, Paris) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Athens.
Steven: In fact, some art historians even question whether or not
Steven: zis is the High Classical moment, and it’s beautifully this is the Panathenaic Procession. It’s important before we end, to
represented here. zere’s a sense of balance, of idealism. In fact, this acknowledge the fact that the Greek government has asked that both
kind of art was considered so perfect, that through much of the rest the British Museum and the Louvre return these marvels to Greece.
of Western history, we see more modern cultures looking back to Just at the foot of the Parthenon, the city of Athens has built a
classical Greece, and trying to achieve, again, what had been achieved magni~cent new museum to house these sculptures should they ever
in the ~wh century B.C.E. be returned.
Watch the video. <hxps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zU9qSQi1E68>
34. The Erechtheion, Acropolis, Athens
A CONVERSATION
Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker
oe Erechtheion, 421-405 B.C.E., Classical Period, Acropolis, Athens (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
ois is the transcript of a conversation conducted at the Athenian Acropolis. Beth: We could refer to this building not as the Erechtheion, but
instead as the Temple to Athena Polias, that is Athena as the protector
Steven: At the top of the Acropolis in Athens adjacent to the goddess of the city of Athens. On this east end was a room that held
Parthenon, the largest building, is a small complex, an elegant the ancient statue of Athena that was said to have dropped from the
building called the Erechtheion. heavens, and it was made of olive wood, it was very simple, it was
nothing like the statue just across the way sculpted by Phidias. So
Beth: zis is an Ionic temple, in contrast to the Parthenon, which is you have this real contrast because with the Erechtheion we have
largely Doric. We notice the Ionic features immediately, the columns this highly decorative building that’s very elegant, but which housed
are more slender, there’s a decorative detail and ~neness, and the a very severe and plain statue of Athena, but across the way in the
scroll shapes that we associate with the Ionic order in the capitals. severe, Doric temple of the Parthenon we had an enormous, highly
decorative sculpture of Athena.
Steven: We’re approaching the Erechtheion from the east side, and
from this angle the building looks fairly traditional. We see six Steven: If you were to enter into the east side you would walk into
columns, the rightmost of which is a reconstruction. Now originally, a relatively shallow cella, this room that would have been the shrine
all of the Ionic columns on this temple were even more decorative. to this olive wood sculpture of Athena, but this is a much more
zere was glass inlaid, there was gold around the bases and in the complicated building than that.
capitals. It must have been a glorious sight.
131
The Erechtheion, Acropolis, Athens 132
Beth: Right, because normally in a Greek temple you expect to see
symmetry.
Steven: In this case, the earth drops down and the building itself is
sandwiched into a very tight space between the foundation of the old
temple to Athena that the Persians had destroyed and the sheer cli}
at the edge of the Acropolis, and yet the architect invented a very
elegant solution. Instead of a temple that has six columns on both the
east and the west, what the architect has done is to swing the back
colonnade around to the north. If we walk down a set of stairs, that
brings us to an area dedicated to Zeus and much of the great north
porch. So we’ve just walked down a narrow, steep ight of stairs,
but originally there was a broad staircase that brought us down to a
precinct associated with Zeus. He was the divine judge of a contest
between a god and a goddess to see who could be the patron of the
city of Athens.
Beth: And in a contest judged by the earthly king, Erechtheion… North porch, the Erechtheion, 421-405 B.C.E., Classical Period, Acropolis, Athens
(photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Steven: …the mythic ~gure.
Beth: When we look up at the north side, we can see that the architect
Beth: Hence the name of this temple, the Erechtheion. Erechtheus used a blue marble in the frieze area, and that sculpture would have
asked each god to o}er a giw to the people of Athens, and he would been in Pentelic marble, which was whitish or cream colored and
be the earthly judge. Athena o}ers an olive tree, a symbol of peace, of would have been just beautifully o}set against that blue marble.
fertility, and just here on the west side was the location of that tree
o}ered by Athena. Steven: In fact, the entablature of the north porch is incredibly
detailed, and because the entablature is so high on columns that are
Steven: In fact, the modern Athenians have replanted that tree in that much higher than on the other sides, you have a continuity that’s
spot, and for Poseidon’s part, he took his trident and struck a rock created by the carving that surround this building that allow the
and from it came a spring of salt water; he is the ruler of the seas. building to feel uni~ed.
In fact, if you look at the north porch of the Erechtheion, you can
see that in the roof there’s a hole, there’s a window, and according Beth: But the real treat that everyone comes to see is the so-called
to tradition, this is where his trident came down from the sky and “Porch of the Maidens” on the south side.
struck the bedrock from which the spring of saltwater came. If you
look at the base of the porch, you can see that there’s some missing Steven: Let’s go take a look. As we walk around, let’s stop here on
stone, which allows you to see the actual mark in the bedrock. So this the west side of the building because you have a clear view of the
temple, the Erechtheion, was a complicated place. It had to hold not di}erent levels. On the lew you see the very tall north porch, on the
only the sculpture to Athena, but also these preexisting shrines. right, the Porch of the Maidens, but in between you see engaged or
half columns, and those columns allow for a kind of symmetry with
the east porch.
North porch paving gap, the Erechtheion, 421-405 B.C.E., Classical Period, oe Erechtheion (west side), 421-405 B.C.E., Classical Period, Acropolis, Athens
Acropolis, Athens (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Beth: ze building is an elegant solution for the problem of a site that Beth: So we’re standing now with our back to the Parthenon looking
is serving multiple functions. at the south side of the Erechtheion at the glorious Porch of the
Maidens, with its famous six caryatids. Six female ~gures who seem
Steven: So the architectural problem was a complex one. How do you to be holding up the porch, and reminiscent of kore ~gures from the
build a building in a constrained space between an important ancient Archaic period.
site that is being commemorated, the old temple to Athena, the side of
the cli}, on multiple levels, and for multiple purposes?
133 Smarthistory guide to Ancient Greek Art
South Porch, the Erechtheion, 421-405 B.C.E., Classical Period, Acropolis, Athens (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Steven: zey have taken the place of columns and they make explicit Beth: zey remind me of the Panathenaic procession, that annual
the relationship between the vertical column and the human body. religious procession where the Athenians would come up to the
Acropolis and present a new woven garment to the olive wood statue
Beth: In Greek architecture, we have a post and lintel system, verticals of Athena that was housed here.
are posts and lintels are horizontal members that go across, and the
vertical elements, the columns, correspond in a way to the verticality Steven: Now we don’t know who these ~gures are. zere have been
of the human body. lots of theories. In fact, the ancient Roman architect and theoretician,
Vitruvius, suggested they represented Greek people that had sided
Steven: zis isn’t the ~rst time that there have been caryatids in Greek with the enemy, the Persians, during the Persian war and had been
architecture. ze Siphnian treasury at Delphi incorporated female captured by the Athenians. ze men had been killed, the women
~gures, but that was Archaic, and here we have the human body and enslaved and forced to wear their royal garments in expression of
the drapery handled in the High Classical manner. their lasting humiliation.
Beth: Most obviously, you can see the contrapposto pose, you see their Beth: But really we don’t know.
knees pressing through their drapery, the shiw in their hips, the sense
of movement here, but that sense of movement is balanced by a pull Steven: We have no idea.
of vertical lines in their drapery that gives them at the same time a
sense of stability so we don’t feel like the porch is going to fall down. Beth: We do know that their elegance matches its Ionic order, the
decorative moldings, the colored glass and stone that was used here,
Steven: Especially since their locked legs, not their free legs, but the the e}ect must have been very rich and very di}erent from what we
legs where the drapery completely hides the anatomy of the leg, that see today.
is so columnar, and that’s towards the outside, creating a sense of
stability. Steven: But we talked about the symmetry between the east porch of
the building and the half columns on the west side. Here there’s a
Beth: And confounding the human body with a column. symmetry between the six caryatids on the south porch and the six
columns on the north porch. And so, although we have a building that
Steven: I love how they seem to be in procession, they’re certainly is very disparate…
looking towards the Parthenon.
The Erechtheion, Acropolis, Athens 134
Beth: …that enclosed the shrines of di}erent Greek gods and
goddesses…
Steven: …this building beautifully expresses the ability of Greek
architects during the High Classical period to unify disparate
purposes in a complex terrain.
Watch the video. <hxps://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue
=484&v=3ebYvMC12HI>
Caryatids, South Porch, the Erechtheion, 421-405 B.C.E., Classical Period, Acropolis,
Athens (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
View of the east porch, the Erechtheion and the Parthenon beyond, 421-405 B.C.E., Classical Period, Acropolis, Athens (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
35. Caryatid and Ionic Column from the
Erechtheion
A CONVERSATION
Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker
ois is the transcript of a conversation conducted at the British Museum,
London.
Steven: We’re in the British Museum, and we’re looking at one of the
Caryatids from the Erechtheion from the Acropolis in Athens.
Beth: Yes!
Steven: zat’s a lot of information.
Beth: And a Caryatid is a human ~gure acting as a column.
Steven: She looks like a column.
Beth: She does, her drapery falls in what almost looks like the uting
of a column, those vertical ridges.
Steven: And because she stands in contrapposto with one weight
bearing leg, which is the one that looks like a column, and one free leg
so that the knee juts forward that drapery is allowed to fall completely
free of the body below. zere is a very subtle and very sensitively
handled sway to her body, right? ze contrapposto is not just in the
legs, but even in the hips, which you can’t actually see, because of all
the cloth, but which are referred to.
Beth: We have this nice circular form around her hips…
Steven: …where the peplos just bunches.
Beth: Right, that tunic that she’s wearing, and that pools down around
her waist, falling from her breasts in a very graceful way.
Steven: It’s interesting because we’re talking about the sway of the Caryatid (South Porch), Erechtheion on the Acropolis, Athens, marble, 421-407 B.C.E.,
body, but by the time you get up to the capital, up to her head, she’s Classical Period (British Museum, London) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
straightened out, and she has to be. You know, you can really get a
sense of the speci~city, the weight, the thickness of the cloth. You
know, the way a peplos (a female garment worn in ancient Greece)
worked, it was pinned at the shoulders, but you can really get a sense
that this is not a very thin fabric, it’s got a certain heaviness to it.
Beth: Kind of weight to it.
135
Caryatid and Ionic Column from the Erechtheion 136
Steven: Yeah, absolutely.
Beth: And there’s a nobility to her that is very much what we’ve been
seeing when we also looked at the Parthenon sculptures. Again, we’re
in ~wh-century B.C.E. Greece, the Classical era, with that same sense
of ideal perfect beauty, and nobility, and monumentality.
Steven: But I also ~nd it really interesting, this idea of conating an
architectural element with the human body because that’s something
that is a very ancient idea, and here it’s done in the most direct way.
Later the Romans will talk about architecture in terms of the human
body. Not only in terms of scale, but also in terms of proportion. And
here, it’s taken to the most literal extreme.
Beth: And within the same room is the fabulous Ionic column, also
from the Erechtheion, which is very graceful, and grows more slender
as it rises toward the top, with the lovely Ionic capital, with decorative
carving underneath. But having this column here is a really important
reminder of the scale of those buildings in the Acropolis, because
when you’re standing in the Museum, you forget the scale of these
buildings on top of a hill in Athens.
Steven: How big these buildings were!
Beth: Here in London, there’s a nice skylight above it, which begins to
give you a sense of what it’s like in natural light to see the stone.
Caryatid (bust), Erechtheion on the Acropolis, Athens, marble, 421-407 B.C.E.,
Classical Period (British Museum, London) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA
2.0)
Steven: It’s interesting, if you look at the porch where this came from,
there are six caryatids altogether, four facing forward, and the two on
the right oppose the two on the lew in terms of the contrapposto, I
believe with the weight-bearing leg on the outside always to make it
feel more stable. zis is a sort of sensitivity to…
Beth: …harmony, balance.
South Porch, Erechtheion on the Acropolis, Athens, marble, 421-407 B.C.E. (Mnesicles may Caryatid (South Porch) and Ionic Column (North Porch), Erechtheion on the
have been the architect) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) Acropolis, Athens, marble, 421-407 B.C.E., Classical Period (British Museum,
London) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
137 Smarthistory guide to Ancient Greek Art
Steven: And this is, as you said, an Ionic column, which is a much
more slender, much more graceful column than the heavy Doric, the
massiveness that we see in the Parthenon, which is just across the
way on the Acropolis. You know sometimes—and I think this is a lixle
sexist—this order, the Ionic, is referred to as the more feminine.
Beth: Right, more elegant, more graceful, more decorative.
Steven: And, of course, the female ~gures are replacing the actual
columns, so there is a kind of the synthesis of those two.
Beth: And the lovely uting that makes this wonderful play of light
and dark across the column.
Steven: Fluting and, unlike the Doric, there’s a base. ze column
doesn’t rise directly out of the stylobate. zere’s this sort of footing,
and of course, that beautiful scrolled capital.
Watch the video. <hxps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X872rmzCF8> Ionic Column (North Porch), Erechtheion on the Acropolis, Athens, marble, 421-407
B.C.E., Classical Period (British Museum, London). Mnesicles may have been the
architect (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Temple of Athena Nike, 421-05 B.C.E., marble, Acropolis, Athens (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
36. Temple of Athena Nike
ON THE ATHENIAN ACROPOLIS
Katarzyna Minollari
ze temple of Athena Nike (Athena as a goddess of victory) is the ze spot, highly vulnerable to axack but also well placed for defense,
smallest temple at the Acropolis in Athens, placed at its southwest was very appropriate for the worship of the goddess of victory. zere
corner, at the edge of a high cli} (see images above). Its construction is some archaeological evidence, that the location was used for
was completed in the year 420 B.C.E., during the so called High religious rituals already in Mycenaean age (Mycenaean was a period
Classical Period, according to the design of Kallikrates (the same of early Greek history, roughly from 1600 to 1100 B.C.E.). Mycenaeans
architect who was responsible for the construction of the Parthenon). also raised the ~rst defensive bastion on the spot; its fragments are
ze temple by Kallikrates replaced an earlier small temple, which got preserved in the temple’s basement.
completely destroyed during the Persian Wars (a series of conicts
between the Greek city-states and the Achaemenid Empite of Persia,
from 499-449 B.C.E.) .
138
The words you are searching are inside this book. To get more targeted content, please make full-text search by clicking here.
Smarthistory-guide-to-Ancient-Greek-Art-1570549025
Discover the best professional documents and content resources in AnyFlip Document Base.
Search